Comments on entities

Comments are how two people work on the same world without talking over each other. Open a person, a place, a faction — anything with an entity record — and the Comments tab is where you ask “is he still alive in 812?” and get an answer that stays attached to the thing you asked about.

Note

Commenting is a Collector feature, checked against the world owner’s plan rather than yours. If someone on a Collector plan shares a world with you, you can comment in it whatever plan you’re on — the point of review is that the people invited to review can actually do it.

Leaving a comment

1. Open an entity and choose the Comments tab.

2. Press Add a comment, write what you want to say, and press Comment.

   Enter posts. Shift+Enter starts a new line.

3. Anyone else with access to the world sees it appear without refreshing.

Commenting on one field

A whole-record thread is the right place for “is he still alive in 812?” — but often the question is about one specific thing: this date, this population figure, this summary. For those, comment on the field itself.

1. On the Details tab, hover the field you want to ask about. A small speech-bubble button appears beside its label.

2. Press it. The thread opens on the Comments tab, already quoting the field and what it currently says, so the question reads on its own.

3. Write your reply underneath and press Comment.

Once a field has a conversation, its button stops hiding — it stays visible in violet with the number of open threads beside it. That number is how you can tell, at a glance on the Details tab, that someone has queried a figure without having to go looking on the Comments tab.

Tip

Pressing the button on a field that already has a thread opens that thread rather than starting a second one. If you do want a separate conversation about the same field, reply in the existing thread or resolve it first.

Threads stay attached to the field even after the value changes — that’s the point, since “why did this change?” is a question about the change. If the field itself is removed from the entity type, its threads aren’t lost: they stop appearing beside a field and stay listed on the Comments tab under their label.

Mentioning someone

Type @ and the names of people who can see this world come up. Pick one and they get a notification linking straight back to the thread.

Two things worth knowing:

• Only people who can see the entity can be mentioned. The list only offers people the world has actually been shared with, and even if you type a name by hand, someone without access is quietly skipped rather than sent a notification for something they can’t open.
• A name that doesn’t match anybody stays plain text. If @ada isn’t someone here, it reads as ordinary writing and nobody is notified — the highlight only appears when the mention actually reached a person.

If you edit a comment to add a mention, the newly mentioned person is notified.

Replies, and keeping a thread quiet

Threads are one level deep: a comment and its replies, never a reply to a reply. That keeps a discussion readable rather than turning it into a tree.

Starting a thread or replying to one watches it, so you hear about later replies. The bell on a thread cycles through three states:

Bell	Means
Faint	You haven’t chosen. You’ll be notified if you’re mentioned.
Filled	Watching — you hear about every reply.
Crossed out	Muted — nothing from this thread.

Muting sticks. Replying again won’t quietly turn notifications back on.

Resolving

When a question is settled, mark the thread resolved. It stays readable but drops out of the default Open filter, so what’s left is what still needs attention. Use the All filter to see everything, or @me for threads you’re part of.

The thread’s author can resolve it, and so can the world owner or anyone with an editor share.

Reactions and history

Hover a comment for the reaction button — useful for agreeing without adding a reply nobody needs to read.

If a comment says edited, click it to see what it said before. Only changes to the text create an entry; resolving a thread doesn’t.

Who can see comments

Comments follow the entity. Anyone who can see the entity can read and post; anyone who can’t, can’t.

Caution

Publishing a world does not publish its comments. If you make a world public, readers get the content and never the conversation about it. The same is true of a public entity page. Comments are your working notes, not part of what you’ve published.

Deleting an entity deletes its comments. Archiving one hides them, and un-archiving brings them back.

Comments elsewhere

Boards have their own comments, which can be pinned to a specific node or a spot on the canvas — see comments on boards.

Wiki pages have comments too, and they go further: a thread there attaches to a highlighted phrase and follows it as the page is edited. See comments on wiki pages.