Community
PanelWave's community features — team comments live in the CMS today, plus the reader-facing toolkit (reactions, likes, watchlists, sharing) that is still on its way.
PanelWave is building a community layer around published works: comments, reactions, likes, watchlists, and social sharing. The first piece is now live — team comments inside the CMS. The reader-facing side is still on its way; this page is honest about which is which.
New: comments are now usable in the CMS — as a work-level discussion in backstage and as a drawer inside the editor. They are team-internal: only members of the work's team can read or write them, and team owners, admins, and editors moderate them themselves. Reader-facing comments, likes, watchlists, and sharing are not surfaced anywhere yet.
Team comments in the CMS
Comments are the discussion channel for the people making the work — art notes, lettering feedback, review remarks — attached to the thing they are about.
Where to find them
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Backstage → Comments — a work-level thread for discussion that isn't about one specific spot. It sits in the backstage sidebar next to Validation, and in the editor's Work areas menu.
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The editor's comments drawer — a speech-bubble button in the editor header opens a side drawer that targets the most specific thing you have open: the selected panel, otherwise the current page, otherwise the whole work. A scope line at the top of the drawer always tells you what you are commenting on. Switch selection while the drawer is open and it follows.
The button carries a count badge for that same target — the number of comments on the selected panel, page, or work (capped at "99+"). The badge turns amber when comments are waiting for review, and hovering the button spells it out: "Comments on the selected panel: 4 (1 awaiting review)". The count refreshes when you change the selection and whenever the drawer opens or closes.
What you can do in a thread
- Write comments up to 5,000 characters and post replies one level deep.
- Sort by Newest, Popular, or Oldest; comments load in pages of 20 with a Load More Comments button.
- React with six emoji: 👍 like, ❤️ love, 😂 laugh, 😮 surprised, 😢 sad, 😠 angry.
- Edit and Delete your own comments (edited comments are labeled).
- Pinned comments display with a Pinned badge.
Who can see what
Comment threads are scoped to the work's team. You must be signed in and a member of the team that owns the work to read or post — comments on one team's work are invisible to everyone else, including other signed-in creators.
Moderation and abuse protection
Because every author is already a member of the work's team, comments are approved the moment they are posted — there is no email-verification gate. Two automatic guards still apply:
- Comments that look like spam — an unusual number of links, or terms on the platform's blocklist — are held for review rather than rejected, so a false positive never destroys what you wrote. The author sees "Your comment is pending moderation." and a moderator finds the comment in the review queue.
- Posting very rapidly is rate-limited; wait a moment and try again.
Moderating as a team
Team members with the owner, admin, or editor role see three tabs above the thread (in backstage and in the editor drawer):
| Tab | Shows |
|---|---|
| Discussion | Approved comments — what everyone on the team sees. This is the only tab with the comment form, reactions, and replies. |
| Review queue | Comments held by the content guard or flagged by a moderator. The tab carries a count badge while anything is waiting. |
| Rejected | Comments a moderator rejected, kept so they can be restored. |
Each comment in these views shows a status badge (pending, flagged, rejected) and the moderation actions that make sense for it:
- Approve — publishes a pending or flagged comment to the discussion.
- Flag — hides an approved comment from the discussion and sends it to the review queue for a second look.
- Reject — removes a comment from the discussion without deleting it.
- Restore — brings a rejected comment back (it reappears as approved).
Moderating never deletes anything; only the author (or a moderator using Delete) removes a comment for good. Members with the viewer role see the discussion only.
What's still coming: the reader-facing layer
The building blocks below are implemented in the platform but are not yet visible to readers anywhere:
Reader comments
The same threaded comment system, opened up to your audience on published works — with the moderation queue above standing between the internet and your comment section.
Likes
A heart button for works and individual panels, with a running count (abbreviated as 1.2K / 3.4M for large numbers). Liking requires a signed-in reader.
Watchlist
A star button that lets readers follow a work: Add to Watchlist / Remove from Watchlist, with an option to be notified when the work is updated, plus a follower count. This is the "following" mechanism for serialized works.
Sharing
A share menu for a work, chapter, or panel offering Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Email, and Copy Link, along with a share counter ("Shared 12 times").
Reaching readers today
While the reader-facing layer is being wired up, these creator tools are live now:
Analytics
Reads, completion, and reading time — the measurable side of your audience.
Publishing
Put your work in front of readers with a shareable player URL.
Export
Produce video clips and PDFs to promote your work on social media yourself.
Watch the changelog for announcements as community features reach the reading experience.