# Comments on cell's

**URL:** <https://talk.observablehq.com/t/comments-on-cells/1267>\
**Category:** Feedback\
**Created:** [October 1, 2018, 8:07pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/comments-on-cells/1267 "2018-10-01T20:07:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tau](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/tau/32/1038_2.png) [@tau](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/tau)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2018, 8:07pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/comments-on-cells/1267/1 "2018-10-01T20:07:51Z")

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I am not _really_ sure if it would be an improvement but maybe it is worth a thought.  
In a way it is a natural next step. Writing the notebook privately, publishing it and then once it is in the public, maybe people want to talk about it.  
Some cases where it would be nice to comment on a cell are e.g.

pros:

- finding mistakes ( i would like people to tell me when i am wrong and don’t notice it myself)
- adding suggestions / additional resources
- asking questions

cons (that i can think of):

- spamming

So maybe it would be an idea to make it optional.

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**Author:** ![jashkenas](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/jashkenas/32/1778_2.png) [@jashkenas](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/jashkenas)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2018, 8:17pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/comments-on-cells/1267/3 "2018-10-01T20:17:40Z")

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@tau No ETA yet … but we’re working on it!

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**Author:** ![RandomFractals](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/randomfractals/32/759_2.png) [@RandomFractals](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/RandomFractals)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2018, 8:34pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/comments-on-cells/1267/4 "2018-10-01T20:34:35Z")

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also, generic notebook review commments been covered in my epic here:

> [@Notebooks discovery enhancements to consider](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/notebooks-discovery-enhancements-to-consider/927):
>
> hashtags support to tag notebooks with specific topics Current global search feature is nice but it scans all the notes and pulls up unrelated notebooks at times. Allowing notebook authors to tag their notebooks could narrow those search results as your public library grows. Follow author option This could extend current notebook likes functionality to get email notifications on new published notebooks by the contributors you fancy, or just in browser notifications of their latest updates …

also worth noting this thread for cell level tests or docs:

> [@How to get a cell’s name?](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/how-to-get-a-cell-s-name/1246/4):
>
> I can add a short snippet to my noteboosk.js for namedCells and functions extract from notebook nodes value. still wondering how you intend to use it? outside of observable as a custom js script similar to how we do unit tests with spec.js but for docs? very good question and idea! I never thought of notebook cell docs. def. worth considering adding to some form of observable runtime in the future.

I’d like to see some options for both on site, in runtime, or inspector to do just that down to cell level.

I still think providing proper notebook spec and api per our convo w/ @jrus here is probably the best way to go there:

> [@Feature request: drag to re-arrange](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/feature-request-drag-to-re-arrange/82/16):
>
> I agree with @jrus. I am still itching to do an Electron app that would have custom cell renderers/decorators, options for different code formaters, with UX niceties like moving whole sections of the notebook document, plus cells bookmarking I brought up in the past. see [Observable Electron app idea](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/observable-electron-app-idea/933) and [Feature request(s): export all + search my notebooks](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/feature-request-s-export-all-search-my-notebooks/1152/2) There are endless possibilities 1 could explore building custom UIs on top of observable to fit different workflows without overburdening t…

Good q! +1

**also I know observable dev crew is super busy with the next month release. What’s in it thou?**

I am taking a dive into this bit and can prototype comments on cells there in the time being if you open to 3rd party api beta I know @mbostock doesn’t approve. Just planning ahead for you guys 🙂

> [@Feature request(s): export all + search my notebooks](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/feature-request-s-export-all-search-my-notebooks/1152/3):
>
> loopback: this could work! slight_smile see basic UX design idea for this 3rd party notebooks bookmarks featurelet here:

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**Author:** ![farzadab](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9de0a6/32.png) [@farzadab](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/farzadab)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2019, 9:55pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/comments-on-cells/1267/5 "2019-01-24T21:55:26Z")

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Just as a workaround for now, since you can easily add Javascript, you can just add comments via [Disqus](https://disqus.com). It’s a bit weird I agree and it might not be great since it gets forked, but it works for now.

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**Author:** ![bumbeishvili](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/bumbeishvili/32/4220_2.png) [@bumbeishvili](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/bumbeishvili)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2019, 3:07pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/comments-on-cells/1267/6 "2019-02-10T15:07:17Z")

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Funny, just had a same idea (using disqus) and implemented generic functionality.

Anyone can import this functionality in his & her notebook

> **[Comments on notebooks](https://beta.observablehq.com/@bumbeishvili/comments-on-notebooks)**
>
> An Observable notebook by David Bumbeishvili.
