Texans Chat uses Hyvor Talk as our choice of commenting platform based on privacy protections and robust features that we think makes Texans Chat pretty cool. There is a free version and also two paid plans, but the privacy protections for users is the same whether a site uses a free version or a paid version. Hyvor Talk does not place ads, afflliate links, or any other tracking code on a website (even if you use the free plan). Hyvor Talk is privacy-focused.
Texans Chat subscribes to a paid plan which gives us a lot more features for users to enjoy, such as real-time comments (You can be in the comments section and see someone making a comment in real time–No need to refresh your page or wait for the page to auto-refresh to see new comments, in other words).
There are some bad actors out there when it comes to 3rd Party commenting platforms, and one reason Hyvor Talk was our choice is because we feel they do a great job of not selling you and I out to other companies out there.
Hyvor Talk Privacy Policy
You can view Hyvor Talk’s Privacy Policy but I will hit the highlights here:
Hyvor Talk does not place any tracking, advertising, affiliate, or any third-party codes on client websites.
When someone publishes a comment (guest, hyvor, or SSO) on a website, the current IP address of the user will be saved, and the moderators of the website can see it. It is commonly used to ban spammers by IP address.
Hyvor Talk uses HTTPS/TLS encryption to protect data transferred between you and the Hyvor Talk site. All of your data is stored safely on Hyvor Talk databases and always backed up on external servers that Hyvor Talk owns. Therefore, Hyvor Talk guarantees the safety of your stored data. However, the data transferred through the internet is not always completely safe. You are responsible for taking appropriate actions to secure your account.
Now for the FUN Stuff. This Is What You’ll Love About Hyvor Talk:
- Easy To Use & Loaded With Bad Ass Stuff. You can embed animated GIFs by using the built-in GIF library or pasting a GIF’s URL into its own line within the new comment editor. You can embed videos (YouTube and Vimeo) by pasting a video’s URL into its own line. You can embed Tweets in the same manner (use the URL and not the twitter “Embed this tweet” code). An emoji library if you’re into that sort of thing.
- Looks amazing on desktop and on mobile, too. On mobile devices, we suggest you turn your phone sideways into landscape so you can see threaded replies and interact with the commenting system much better. But portrait mode is fine most of the time. Not gonna’ lie, it’s hard to compose a comment on a mobile phone even when turned sideways…little screens suck for things like this.
- Lightning Fast. Lazy Loading means you don’t have to wait for an entire comments section to load all comments. It loads as you scroll down the comments section.
- Real-Time Comments. It’s basically like instant messaging. You can see others making comments in real time. No waiting for a comments section or page to auto-refresh, and no need to refresh the page yourself. If someone is in the process of typing a reply to a comment, you’ll see the text “1 replying…” underneath the comment being replied to.
- New comments are highlighted with a green background color to draw your attention.
- Easily jump to an unread comment. You can hit the z key on your keyboard and it will jump you to the next unread comment.
- Other keyboard shortcuts for desktop/laptop users: Hitting the “N” key jumps you up to the New Comment box so you can compose a new comment. “X” key jumps you up one comment at a time. “C” key jumps you down one comment at a time.
- You can see how many people are currently online at Texans Chat. In the top right corner of the New Comment box, you will see how many people are currently viewing that particular comments section. The alerts “bell” icon, when clicked, you can click those items to jump to those comments, or click Mark All As Read. NOTE: You have to click the Mark All As Read several times to clear out all replies in this particular notification section.
- Nested or “threaded” comments, up to 5 levels. Track a series of replies by the light gray vertical line(s) to the left of a comment. We currently have it set to show its maximum of 5 levels of threaded replies.
- Hover your mouse over the gray vertical line to the left of a person’s profile pic. It shows you which person the comment is in reply to. Sort of like the “Up” button back on BRB’s old commenting system.
- Collapse conversations you’re not interested in. You can collapse threaded conversations by clicking on one of the vertical lines to the left of the comment. Clicking the line that leads to the “comment of origin” collapses every reply that happens underneath it. Or, choose to click a line that involves only certain sub-conversations.
- “See More” function. There is a certain character length limit in a comment so that when the threshold has been reached, a viewer has to hit the See More to reveal the full comment. This will tidy up the user experience so that you can choose to see the entire comment or keep scrolling along to more comments without a long comment taking up the entire screen. An example of this is my comment, which is the first comment in the August 17, 2020 Daily Thread.
- Sort and display the comments via a dropdown window. I have it set to sort and display by Oldest, which is how it is on BRB. You see the oldest comment first and then the new comments go down the page. I think it’s the most natural flow for reading. You can, if you want, hit the dropdown and sort it how you want: Oldest, or Newest, or Best.
- Spam Protection. The built-in spam detector detects spam comments based on user reputation, included links, and many factors. I also have it set to mark-as-spam any comment that contains the word retarded or retard.
- Upvoting if you want to “rec” someone. We have disabled Downvoting because Downvoting sucks. Hyvor Talk is saying they will soon be releasing the new feature that turns a comment a color when it reaches whatever number of UpVotes I want to set it to. So we’re gonna’ eventually get to turn comments green again! I’ll probably turn the background color for new comments to a light shade of blue (new comments currently have the green background color).
- Email notifications. You need to go into your Hyvor Talk profile/account area and choose if you want to receive emails that notify you of mentions, replies, or new comments. I believe when you create your Hyvor Account it defaults to opt you into those…so, go in and toggle it off if you don’t want one or more of those email notifications.
- Easy to update your Hyvor profile. You can go to your Hyvor Talk account and edit your profile. Use an auto-generated profile pic or upload your own pic or graphic. Need to change your email address? You can do that. Need to change your password? Yep. Change your First Name (which is actually what’s used as your screen name) or change your User Name (which oddly enough ISN’T your screen name)? Yep. Delete your Hyvor account altogether? Yep.
- View lots of cool stuff in your Hyvor Account area. You can see all of your comments and even delete any of your comments from right there within your Hyvor Account’s “Comments” section if the booze wears off the next day and you think, “I shouldn’t have posted that last night.”
- Go straight to your Hyvor account by clicking on your profile pic that’s in any of the comments sections of the Texans Chat articles.
- There’s probably more, but you get the idea: Hyvor Talk is robust.