If I am not misunderstanding what you are trying to built, it seems that it exists already: Https://www.powr.io/comments-website-app or https://commento.io/. Source: 11 months ago

Thanks - that one is on my short list along with Commento. Source: 11 months ago

You might wanna check out commento as I've heard good things. Haven't personally used but the impression I get from it is quite positive. Source: about 1 year ago

Commento (https://commento.io/ ) is a nice service that I've used with static site generators like Hugo -- very easy to add to a project - no real coding required to include it, and people can add comments to your blog etc... Honest straightforward pricing model for their SASS offering, and it's open source, so you can host it yourself if you have a server. Source: over 1 year ago

Given that I don't want to rely on proprietary services, does anyone know of a Commento to Notado's Disqus? (i.e. Equivalent but self-hostable and open-source). Source: over 1 year ago

I would highly recommend Scopio too. That way you will be paying the contributors for their photos. I'm so fed up by this monopolization of stock images. Pexels and pixabay will provably be the next corps to get acquired by getty. Source: about 3 years ago

Scopio is a great alternative! It offers a wide selection of authentic images and the contributor will be paid for every download. Check it out here https://scop.io/. Source: about 3 years ago