If I am not misunderstanding what you are trying to built, it seems that it exists already: Https://www.powr.io/comments-website-app or https://commento.io/. Source: 12 months ago

Thanks - that one is on my short list along with Commento. Source: 12 months ago

You might wanna check out commento as I've heard good things. Haven't personally used but the impression I get from it is quite positive. Source: over 1 year ago

Commento (https://commento.io/ ) is a nice service that I've used with static site generators like Hugo -- very easy to add to a project - no real coding required to include it, and people can add comments to your blog etc... Honest straightforward pricing model for their SASS offering, and it's open source, so you can host it yourself if you have a server. Source: over 1 year ago

Given that I don't want to rely on proprietary services, does anyone know of a Commento to Notado's Disqus? (i.e. Equivalent but self-hostable and open-source). Source: over 1 year ago

As an autistic person, I'm much more comfortable with the classic forum layout. I know instantly where a certain discussion would be appropriate. Whereas on reddit, I often feel at bit lost to be frank even with flair on posts. I've created a youth rights forum on proboards.com It's a free hosting service for forums. My forum is called Youth Rights Now! Source: 7 months ago

I mean, sites like that have existed since back then. Hell Proboards is still active: https://proboards.com/. Source: about 1 year ago

Otherwise, your best bet is to use a 3rd party service (like proboards.com - I hope its ok I posted that link, im not affiliated with it) and then just link to it from your website. that would the less hassle way. Source: over 2 years ago