Comment System Setup Guide

This blog supports comments using Giscus (recommended) or Disqus. Giscus is free, privacy-friendly, and uses GitHub Discussions.

Step 1: Install Giscus GitHub App

IMPORTANT: You must install the Giscus app first!

  1. Go to https://github.com/apps/giscus
  2. Click Install or Configure
  3. Select your account/organization
  4. Choose which repositories to grant access:
    • All repositories (recommended), OR
    • Only select repositories → Choose haibol2016.github.io
  5. Click Install or Save
  6. Grant the requested permissions

Step 2: Enable GitHub Discussions

  1. Go to your GitHub repository: https://github.com/haibol2016/haibol2016.github.io
  2. Click Settings → General
  3. Scroll down to Features
  4. Check Discussions to enable it
  5. Click Set up discussions

Step 3: Create a Discussion Category

  1. In your repository, go to Discussions tab
  2. Create a category (e.g., “Announcements” or “General”)
  3. Note the category name

Step 4: Get Giscus Configuration

  1. Go to https://giscus.app/
  2. Sign in with your GitHub account
  3. Select your repository: haibol2016/haibol2016.github.io
    • If you see “giscus is not installed”, go back to Step 1
  4. Choose the discussion category you created
  5. Configure settings:
    • Page ↔ Discussions mapping: Pathname
    • Discussion category: Select your category
    • Features: Enable reactions, enable input position (bottom)
    • Theme: Light (or match your site theme)
  6. Copy the configuration values shown

Step 5: Update _config.yml

Edit _config.yml and update the giscus section with your values:

giscus:
  repo: "haibol2016/haibol2016.github.io"
  repo_id: "YOUR_REPO_ID"  # From giscus.app
  category: "Announcements"  # Your category name
  category_id: "YOUR_CATEGORY_ID"  # From giscus.app

Step 6: Deploy

  1. Commit and push your changes
  2. Wait for GitHub Pages to rebuild
  3. Comments will appear at the bottom of each blog post

Alternative: Disqus Setup

If you prefer Disqus:

  1. Sign up at https://disqus.com/
  2. Create a site
  3. Get your Disqus shortname
  4. In _config.yml, comment out the giscus section and uncomment disqus:
# giscus:
#   repo: "haibol2016/haibol2016.github.io"
#   ...

disqus:
  shortname: "your-disqus-shortname"

Customization

You can customize the comment appearance by editing _includes/comments.html:

Troubleshooting