Lexicon · 52 terms
The vocabulary of modern reader conversation.
Plain-language definitions of the terms shaping comment systems in 2026, DSA, GDPR, AI moderation, reader retention, first-party data. Sourced from production deployments with European newsrooms. Linked to the matching Logora features.
All entries
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10 entries
Compliance & regulation
DSA, GDPR, Schrems II, transparency reports, the legal frame around publisher comments.
- AI Act (EU) EU regulation adopted in 2024 that imposes risk-tiered obligations on AI systems deployed in the European Union, including the AI moderation engines used by comment platforms.
- Data Processing Agreement (DPA) Contract required by Article 28 of the GDPR between a publisher (data controller) and any third party (data processor) that handles personal data on its behalf, including comment systems.
- Digital Services Act (DSA) EU regulation in force since 2024 that governs how online platforms, including news sites, handle user-generated content, moderation, transparency and user rights.
- DSA Article 14 (statement of reasons) DSA obligation requiring online platforms to give each user a clear, machine-readable explanation when their content is moderated, what was decided, on what legal or contractual basis, and how to appeal.
- DSA Article 24 (annual transparency report) DSA obligation requiring every online platform to publish a yearly transparency report covering moderation volumes, response times, automated tools used, and outcomes, in a machine-readable format.
- GDPR for news comments European data protection regulation that governs how publishers collect, store and process reader data, including comments, debate contributions, and accounts.
- Notice-and-action mechanism DSA-mandated process by which any user can flag illegal content on a platform, with a clear interface and a documented response from the platform, typically a takedown decision or a justified refusal.
- Schrems II 2020 ruling by the Court of Justice of the EU (case C-311/18) that invalidated the EU-US Privacy Shield and imposed strict conditions on transferring EU personal data to US-based platforms, including news comment systems.
- Statement of reasons DSA Article 17 obligation requiring platforms to give every affected user a clear explanation of any moderation decision, including the ground for the action and the available redress channels.
- Transparency report Annual document required by the DSA in which a platform, including news websites that host comments, discloses volumes, response times, automated tools and outcomes of its content moderation activity.
18 entries
Moderation & safety
AI moderation, toxicity detection, hate speech, multilingual review, the moderation stack.
- AI moderation Use of machine learning to automatically detect, filter or rank user-generated content based on toxicity, relevance, language and policy violations, typically combined with human review for the edge cases.
- Astroturfing A fake grassroots campaign : coordinated actors disguise an orchestrated push as a spontaneous citizen movement, using fake accounts and synchronised messages to manufacture the appearance of public opinion.
- Blocklist (and profanity filter) A list of terms that automatically reject or flag a contribution, distinct from a watchlist of suspicious words that routes content to human review based on context.
- Brand safety The practice of protecting a brand from harmful content published next to its name, so that toxic, illegal or fraudulent user-generated content never appears under a brand's posts or pages.
- Content moderation The editorial and operational practice of reviewing user-generated content (comments, debates, contributions) against a publication's rules to decide what is published, surfaced, or removed.
- Doxxing The act of publishing someone's private information (home address, phone number, real identity) online without their consent, often to intimidate, harass or expose them to harm.
- Hate speech detection Specialised machine-learning task within content moderation : identifying contributions that target a group (ethnic, religious, political, sexual orientation) with hostility, beyond generic toxicity scoring.
- Human-in-the-loop moderation A moderation model where AI handles the volume and auto-decides the clear-cut cases, while a human moderator arbitrates the ambiguous ones the machine cannot judge with confidence.
- Moderation queue The dedicated workspace where flagged or ambiguous user content lands while it waits for a human moderator to make a publish, edit or remove decision.
- Multilingual moderation Content moderation pipeline that scores and routes contributions in multiple languages, natively, not via English translation, to preserve nuance, context and local-law alignment.
- Post-moderation A moderation mode where user contributions are published immediately and then reviewed afterwards, with anything that breaks the rules removed after the fact, the opposite of pre-moderation.
- Pre-moderation A moderation mode in which every contribution is reviewed and explicitly approved before it goes live, the inverse of post-moderation.
- Real-time moderation Analysing and acting on user content at the moment it is submitted, rather than during a later batch review, so toxic or non-compliant contributions are caught before they reach the audience.
- Shadow banning The practice of hiding a user's content from others without telling them, so the author believes they are posting normally while no one else sees what they write.
- Sock puppet account A fake secondary identity created by a real person to deceive a community, typically to inflate a vote, evade a ban, or simulate support that does not exist.
- Spam detection Moderation sub-task focused on identifying promotional, automated, link-laden, or off-topic contributions, separate from toxicity detection, but typically handled by the same pipeline.
- Toxicity detection Use of natural-language-processing models to score user-generated content for hostility, hate, harassment or abusive language, typically as the input to a moderation decision.
- Trolling Posting deliberately provocative or disruptive content to bait emotional reactions, derail a conversation, or exhaust a community, rather than to contribute to it in good faith.
5 entries
Product & platform
Comment system, debate format, consultation widget, what a press-grade conversation platform actually is.
- Comment system Software that enables readers to post, reply, vote and moderate contributions on a publisher's articles, directly embedded on the publisher's domain rather than on social media.
- Comment threading A way of organising reader comments as a tree of nested replies under each parent comment, rather than as a single flat chronological list.
- Journalist avatar Branded identity for a member of the newsroom (editor, journalist, community manager) inside the comment system, used to intervene visibly in debates, recommend contributions, or reply with editorial weight.
- Online forum A standing online space where a publisher's readers post, reply and return over time, tied to signed first-party accounts and a single moderation pipeline, rather than an isolated comment thread that resets with every article.
- Upvoting and downvoting A voting mechanism that lets readers push the best contributions up and bury weak ones, ranking comments and arguments by community sentiment rather than by recency alone.
9 entries
Engagement & retention
Reader retention, UGC, first-party data, churn, the metrics that tie conversation to revenue.
- ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) Average revenue a publisher generates per subscriber per period (usually monthly). Combined with churn, ARPU is the metric that ties product decisions, including comment system choices, to subscription revenue.
- Audience leakage Loss of reader engagement and first-party data to third-party platforms (Facebook, X, Disqus) when the publisher hosts conversation off-domain. Reversed by bringing the conversation back to the publisher's own site.
- Churn (subscriber) Rate at which paying subscribers cancel their subscription over a given period. For a subscription-led publisher in 2026, reducing churn is the single biggest lever on annual revenue.
- First-party data Data a publisher collects directly from its own readers, names, emails, behaviour, subscriptions, comments, stored on the publisher's systems, controlled by the publisher.
- Gamification System of points, badges, reputation tiers and unlockable features designed to make participation in a comment system feel rewarding, and to surface the most engaged contributors over time.
- Paywall Mechanism by which a publisher gates access to its content (full article, premium comments, archive) behind a subscription. Modern paywalls are tied to the reader account that also unlocks the comment system.
- Reader retention The share of newsroom subscribers or registered readers that stay engaged over time. For press publishers, retention is the metric that ties product decisions to revenue.
- Reputation system Mechanism that awards points and reputation tiers to contributors based on the quality and consistency of their participation, unlocking features and surfacing the most trusted voices in a comment system.
- User-Generated Content (UGC) Any content produced by readers rather than the editorial team, comments, debate arguments, votes, replies, photos, contributions. For a publisher, UGC is editorial input as much as it is engagement.
4 entries
Tech & integration
SSO, OAuth, API, JWT, how a comment system plugs into your existing stack.
- JWT (JSON Web Token) Compact, signed token format used to securely transmit identity claims between systems, the standard format Logora uses to receive a reader's identity from your authentication provider.
- OAuth 2.0 / OIDC Authentication and authorisation standards. OAuth 2.0 handles delegated access; OpenID Connect (OIDC) adds identity on top. The standard plumbing between a publisher's reader account system and a comment system.
- Single Sign-On (SSO) Authentication setup that lets readers use one account across the publisher's site, paywall, comments, debates and newsletters, instead of creating a separate account for each function.
- Webhooks Server-to-server event notifications. Logora pushes events (new comment, moderation decision, user signup, badge unlock) to your endpoint in real time, letting you integrate the comment system into your CRM, CDP, or newsroom workflow.
3 entries
Debate formats
Structured debate, voting, arguments, predictions, the formats that go beyond a comment thread.
- Argument quality score Composite score (0-100) Logora computes on every reader contribution, combining moderation pass, sourcing, peer upvotes and response patterns. Used to surface the strongest arguments in a debate.
- Citizen consultation Structured multi-question format gathering reader opinions on a defined topic, between a survey and a debate. Used by media outlets for end-of-year specials, civic consultations, and editorial deep-dives.
- Structured debate Conversation format where readers take an explicit position on a question framed by the editorial team, post arguments to defend it, vote on the strongest contributions, and the best arguments surface algorithmically, rather than a flat comment thread.
3 entries
National regulations
Country-specific rules : Loi Avia (FR), NetzDG (DE), AGCOM (IT) and how Logora handles them.
- LCEN (France) Loi pour la Confiance dans l'Économie Numérique (2004), French law that defines the legal regime for online platforms, including their liability for hosted content and their moderation obligations.
- Loi Avia (France) French law (May 2020) that imposed 1-hour takedown timelines for terrorism content and 24 hours for hate content on online platforms. Partially struck down by the Conseil constitutionnel; some provisions remain in force.
- NetzDG (Germany) German Network Enforcement Act (Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz, 2017) imposing 24-hour takedown obligations on online platforms, including news comment systems, for manifestly illegal hate content.
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