Welcome to Speakness Documentation
Welcome to the Speakness Help Center! Here you'll find comprehensive guides and documentation to help you get the most out of Speakness.
- Documentation type: Client portal & media platform
- Audience: Content creators, media teams, engaged readers
- What you'll find: Setup guides, feature explanations, moderation workflows
What is Speakness?
Speakness is a comprehensive platform that empowers content creators, media organizations, and users to engage in meaningful discussions around news and content. We provide tools for:
- Creating and managing your own media through Medianess
- Embedding comment sections on your existing website or media outlet
- Engaging with content through voting, commenting, and following
Getting Started
Choose the guide that best fits your needs:
- Content creators: Start with the Medianess Guide to launch your own Medianess-powered media brand.
- Media organizations: Embed Speakness discussions using the Comment Section Guide.
- Readers & contributors: Discover how to participate in conversations via the User Experience Guide.
How Speakness Works
Speakness is a viewpoint-driven system designed for news and comments. Our platform enables you to express your opinions through comments and voting, creating a democratic space where the most valuable contributions rise to the top.
Voting on Articles
Each news article has two voting buttons that help signal quality journalism:
- Good Journalism — rate the quality, accuracy, and professionalism of the reporting.
- Good News — indicate whether the news is positive or beneficial.
Each button supports positive, neutral, or negative votes, giving you nuanced control over your feedback.
Voting on Comments
Comments have three distinct voting dimensions that encourage thoughtful discourse:
| Dimension | What it measures | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Civil | Courtesy, respect, and tone | Reward respectful dialogue or flag inappropriate behavior. |
| Useful | Substance, evidence, and reasoning | Highlight well-argued points—even when you disagree. |
| Agree | Alignment with the viewpoint | Show support without affecting usefulness or civility scores. |
Encouraging Constructive Dialogue
Speakness is designed to promote meaningful exchanges where reasoning meets reasoning, not polarization into opposing camps. Here's how:
- Recognize value across viewpoints: Don't hesitate to mark a comment as useful even if you disagree with it. Engaging with different perspectives helps us all grow.
- Honest feedback to allies: If someone shares your viewpoint but their comment lacks substance, you can indicate it's not useful. Quality matters more than agreement.
- Separate dimensions: By voting on civility, usefulness, and agreement separately, we create space for nuanced discussions.
Comment Moderation & Visibility
Media outlets use community voting to filter and sort comments democratically:
- Automatic filtering: Comments that fall below the civility threshold are hidden by default, with an option to view them on demand.
- Smart sorting: Usefulness scores surface the most valuable contributions. Newly posted comments receive a brief spotlight period before being ranked.
- Media outlet rights: Publishers retain the ability to delete comments or block users when legally required. Affected users are notified and can request reconsideration.
Privacy & Transparency
- Anonymous voting: Your article and comment votes are private and visible only to you.
- Public comments: All comments stay public and immutable, ensuring accountability and preventing revisionist edits.
- Personal profile: Review your voting history and contributions in your Speakness profile.
By combining democratic community moderation with transparent systems, Speakness creates an environment where quality discourse thrives and diverse viewpoints can be heard.
Need Help?
If you can't find what you're looking for, please visit speakness.com or contact our support team.