Can I import my Disqus comment history into VeloCMS?
Short answer: not automatically, not yet. Here's what's actually possible today — keeping Disqus running in parallel, or starting fresh with VeloCMS's native comments.
Years of reader discussion are genuinely valuable, and moving off Disqus is appealing on its own — you drop the ad-supported model and the 500KB+ JavaScript bundle it loads on every page. The honest complication: there's no automated way to bring the comment history itself into VeloCMS yet.
The honest answer: comment history doesn't migrate automatically
VeloCMS doesn't have a Disqus import tool, or a comment importer of any kind, today. Disqus does let you export your comment history as XML from Moderation → Export in your Disqus dashboard — that part is real, on Disqus's side — but nothing in VeloCMS reads that file back in. If you're evaluating VeloCMS specifically to preserve years of discussion, it's worth knowing that going in.
What you can actually do today
Option 1 — keep Disqus running. VeloCMS ships a first-party Disqus Comments plugin (Admin → Plugins → Disqus Comments) that embeds your existing Disqus thread on each post, the same way it worked on your old platform. Your comment history stays visible and readable; you're just not bringing it into VeloCMS's own system. Option 2 — start fresh. Switch to VeloCMS's native comment system (moderated at Admin → Comments, with threaded replies) and accept that your historical Disqus discussion stays on Disqus's side — still reachable if you link to the old thread, but not part of your new comment section.
Nothing stops you from running both at once — the Disqus embed on older posts, VeloCMS's own comments on new ones — but showing two different comment systems to readers can be confusing. Most people pick one and switch over cleanly.
If you're also migrating your posts from WordPress
Worth separating two different things: WordPress's own native comments (not Disqus) do come across automatically as part of a WordPress import, because they're stored inside the same WXR export file as your posts. That's unrelated to Disqus — if your WordPress site used Disqus instead of WordPress's built-in comments, your comment history lives on Disqus's servers, not in the WXR file, so this automatic path doesn't cover it.
If this matters enough to build
A real Disqus importer is buildable — the honest limitation today is that it hasn't been, yet. If preserving comment history is a real blocker for your migration, tell VeloCMS support. That's the kind of capability that gets prioritized once there's genuine demand behind it, not built speculatively ahead of it.
Frequently asked questions
- Does VeloCMS's comment system support the basics — moderation, threaded replies? Yes — comments are moderated at Admin → Comments with approve/reject/delete actions, and replies are threaded.
- Will disabling the Disqus embed lose my comments permanently? No — your comments still live on Disqus's own servers and stay exportable from your Disqus dashboard even after you remove the embed. Removing it just stops VeloCMS from displaying them.
- Can I moderate comments from readers who used to comment on Disqus? Only new comments they leave through VeloCMS's own system — there's no way to link a past Disqus identity to a VeloCMS account, since the comment history was never imported in the first place.