How-To/Instructional

Introduction to Emote

Last Updated over a month ago

Introduction

Welcome to the Introduction to Emote! In this article, you will learn about Emote, a lightweight and easy-to-use commenting system that enhances user interaction on your site. Available for free through your Ezoic dashboard or directly from emote.com, Emote integrates seamlessly with both WordPress and other site frameworks. Whether you're looking to enable comments for Humix videos or replace existing WordPress comment sections, this guide will provide you with step-by-step instructions to activate, customize, and manage Emote on your site. Let's get started on enhancing your site's engagement with Emote.

Steps

Activate Emote:
- From your Ezoic dashboard, navigate to Settings > Content > Emote.
- Click on "Enable Emote".
Add Emote Widget to Your Site:
- Go to the Emote Advanced tab to locate the HTML snippet.
- Paste this snippet wherever you want the Emote widget to appear on your site.
For WordPress Users with Ezoic Plugin:
- If you have a WordPress site and the Ezoic WordPress plugin installed, you can replace existing WordPress comment sections with Emote.
- Navigate to the General Settings tab.
- Enable the "Replace WordPress Comments" option.
- Note: This may not work for all publishers due to factors like site layout and theme. If Emote does not appear correctly, you will need to use the HTML snippet instead.

Logging In to Emote

You can log in to Emote via Google, or you can create an account at emote.com.

Moderators for a site can be assigned to a domain by the site owner. Please note that moderators must have an Emote account.

Moderators can perform a variety of functions related to managing comments, such as approving or disapproving filtered comments, deleting comments, or banning users.

You can access all of Emote’s features from the Ezoic dashboard or directly through the Emote dashboard at i.emote.com. For ease of use, we would recommend utilizing Emote’s features through the Ezoic dashboard for the most seamless experience.

Settings Overview

General Settings

Authentication Options: You can choose to allow anonymous comments or not. If anonymous comments are disabled, commenters must log in using a Google account or Emote account in order to leave a comment.

Default Comment Sorting: You can choose to have the most upvoted comments show at the top of the comments section, or you can choose to have the newest or oldest comments show first in chronological order.

Replace WordPress Comments: This option is only available via the Ezoic dashboard. If you were previously using a WordPress commenting plugin, enabling this will automatically bring those comments into Emote. However, this may not work for all sites, because of the wide variety of plugins and comment templates available. If you enable this setting but don’t see WordPress comments in Emote, you may need to import the comments using the Import Comments tool in Advanced Settings.

Moderation Settings

Comment Filtering: A range of options are available for you to toggle on or off according to your preference. There are options for filtering comments that have been detected as spam automatically, requiring manual approval for all comments, requiring manual approval for anonymous comments, and flagging comments that contain links or that are considered “hostile” using a preselected set of filtered/”hostile” words and phrases.

Add Filtered Term: You can indicate any specific terms to filter automatically, so any comment containing this term will be flagged for moderation. Please note that only the exact phrase/word indicated will be flagged. For example, if you set the phrase “I love chocolate” to be filtered, a comment containing the word “chocolate” will not be filtered. Only a comment with the exact phrase “I love chocolate” would be filtered.

Add Moderator: You can designate moderators for your domain here. You will need to use the email address used to create the Emote account for the moderator.

Widget Settings

These settings allow for the customization of the function and appearance of the Emote comment widget on the page.

Auto Load: When enabled, comments will automatically appear in the designated area. If it is disabled, instead there will be a “Load Comments” button.

Disable Refresh/Disable Websockets: Leaving these disabled will have comments appear in real-time. Enabling these will require a page to be refreshed for new comments to become visible.

Disable Fonts: This will prevent custom fonts from being used within the Emote widget.

Hide Deleted: If enabled, any comments that are deleted will be completely removed from the Emote widget, including any replies to that comment. If it is left disabled, deleted comments will only show “(deleted)” within the comment text, and any replies to that comment will still show.

Width and Height: these determine the dimensions of the Emote widget box. By default, the box will fill the container it’s in, so this is generally not necessary. However, if there are issues with the layout being affected by the Emote widget such as the widget breaking out of the borders of your site layout, you can set an explicit height and width of the widget to prevent this from happening.

Nesting Depth: This determines how many comments in a comment chain will be shown before further comments will be hidden under an “expand” button. This is set to three by default.

CSS Override: This allows for further customization of the appearance of Emote. This requires a CSS stylesheet to be provided specifically for the Emote widget, so an understanding of CSS would be necessary for this advanced option.

Default Locale: This determines which language the Emote widget prompts are in if someone is not logged into an Emote account with a default language set. Currently, only English, German, and Spanish are available, but more languages are coming soon.

Notification Settings

This determines what may trigger an email notification to all moderators. “Moderation” refers to actions that require a moderator’s approval, such as filtered comments. “Replies” shows email notifications when you receive a reply to one of your own comments.

Moderate Comments

Here, you can review all comments left on the site. You can take moderation actions such as approving, deleting, or flagging comments.

Manage Commenters

Here, you can view a list of all commenters that have ever interacted with your site. You can ban users, preventing them from being able to leave any further comments from that account, or you can “trust” users, which allows them to bypass all moderation flags. For example, if a “trusted” user uses a filtered word in a comment, their comment will still appear without sending an alert or requiring moderator approval.

Advanced Settings

Import WordPress Comments: If you have previous comments you’d like to still have on the page from WordPress, you can export those comments within WordPress, then upload the file here to have those comments show within Emote.

Import Disqus Comments: This is the same as above, but specifically for comments left through Disqus.

Freeze Domain: This setting completely locks all commenting across the full site, preventing new comments from being made. This is only recommended if you’re facing issues like spam/brigading and need to temporarily disable commenting, or if for any reason you don’t want any future comments left but would still like to have existing comments displayed, such as if the site was being retired.

Install: This provides an HTML snippet so you can place the Emote widget on a specific location on the page if your site does not use WordPress. This is only necessary for non-WordPress sites.

Troubleshooting

1. Emote Not Appearing on Site:

Solution: If Emote is not appearing correctly on your site, especially after enabling the "Replace Wordpress Comments" setting, you should use the provided HTML snippet instead. Navigate to the Emote Advanced tab, copy the HTML snippet, and paste it where you want the widget to appear on your site.

2. Replace Wordpress Comments Not Working:

Solution: The "Replace Wordpress Comments" feature may not work for all publishers due to site layout, theme, or existing comment plugins. If Emote does not replace the existing WordPress comments, you may need to import the comments using the "Import Comments" tool found in Advanced Settings.

3. Moderators Not Able to Log In:

Solution: Ensure that the moderators have an Emote account before assigning them to a domain. They will need to log in using their Emote account credentials.

4. Comment Filtering Not Working as Expected:

Solution: Double-check the terms you've set for filtering in the Moderation Settings. The system only flags exact matches. For instance, if you set the phrase “I love chocolate” to be filtered, only comments with this exact phrase will be flagged, not comments containing just the word “chocolate”.

5. Comments Not Loading Automatically:

Solution: Ensure that the "Auto Load" setting under Widget Settings is enabled. If it is disabled, users will need to click a “Load Comments” button to view comments.

6. Real-Time Comments Not Updating:

Solution: If new comments are not appearing in real-time, ensure that the "Disable Refresh/Disable Websockets" option is not enabled. Disabling this option will require a page refresh to see new comments.

7. Deleted Comments Still Visible:

Solution: To completely remove deleted comments and their replies from the Emote widget, ensure that the “Hide Deleted” option is enabled in the Widget Settings.

8. Layout Issues with Emote Widget:

Solution: If the Emote widget affects your site layout or breaks out of borders, set explicit dimensions under "Width and Height" in the Widget Settings to maintain the layout integrity.

9. Language Settings Not Applying:

Solution: Ensure that the correct "Default Locale" is set in the Widget Settings. Currently, Emote supports English, German, and Spanish with more languages coming soon. Make sure the language is supported and correctly set.

Need Further Assistance?

If you need further assistance with Emote, please log in via https://support.ezoic.com/ to make use of our dedicated resources for support. We're here to help!

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