Good News: You Can Now Finally Comment on My Articles!

When I launched this website about two months ago, I knew it wasn’t complete. I had the basic structure in place, i.e. articles, navigation, clean layout, but I didn’t have time to build out the commenting functionality. It was one of those things I kept saying I’d “get to when I have a free weekend.” Well, this past weekend happened to be a long one in South Africa, so I finally sat down and got it done.

I’ve now implemented a commenting feature on all articles. You don’t need to sign up or log in. Just drop your name, your thoughts, and hit submit. As the admin, I will be moderating things to make sure the discussion remains respectful and meaningful. I have also added some smart anti-spam protections in the background to keep bots away.

Just a reminder for the curious. This site is built on my favourite stack: Laravel (PHP framework), MySQL, and vanilla JavaScript, all hosted on DigitalOcean cloud services. It’s a setup I enjoy working with because it gives me full control while staying lightweight and efficient.

The site has been doing incredibly well so far. I’ve received messages from people all over the world, including students, researchers, developers, and even a few policymakers, all offering useful feedback, encouragement, and ideas. According to google analytics which monitors my traffic stats, most of my readers are based in the US and South Africa, with a decent spread across Europe and a few other pockets globally.

Just looking at the numbers this month alone, it’s been amazing to see how far this website is reaching. The majority of my readers continue to come from the United States (59) and South Africa (23), but what’s even more encouraging is the growing global footprint, with visitors from Singapore (10), Hong Kong (8), China, Mexico, and even France.

This tells me that the content is resonating across different regions and communities, which is both humbling and energising. I’ll share more detailed stats in an upcoming post, but for now, just know that wherever you’re reading from, I truly appreciate you being here.

I’ve now implemented a commenting feature on all articles -- you don’t need to sign up or log in, just drop your name, your thoughts, and hit submit.

More features are on the way; I’m building slowly, deliberately, and always with the user experience in mind.

For now, I’m just really happy to open up the space for more engagement and dialogue. Writing is one part of the process, but hearing from readers, even just a line or two, makes it feel more alive.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to drop a comment on any post that resonates with you.