Live chat and commenting features are a double-edged sword.
Benefits can be profound - products become community experiences and the time spent reading and writing comments is often greater than the consumption of video or stories themselves.
And yet so many organisations have killed off or avoided the risks - for good reason.
Moderation costs, reliability concerns, and the sheer time investment required to manage live conversations have kept many brands from fully embracing the most obvious community-building tactic.
Today, we're excited to announce a preview of Live Comments, a new solution that takes much of the risk out of live chat with a unique approach to automated and AI-powered moderation.
It’s not as simple as putting messages via an LLM. Live Comments is a real-time, topic-centric model that uses the topic, and knowledge of current events, to measure risk and flag comments which deviate from standards. It also lets content creators set their own rules on a per-topic basis.
TL;DR
Topic-centric: Pre-set discussion themes keep conversations relevant and easier to moderate
Time-bound: topics have a start and end, ensuring that brands covering events can capture attention without worrying about unlimited open threads
Your choice of LLM: the solution plugs your choice of LLM into the flow, using existing commercial deals or partnerships.
Every message is checked: every single message is moderated before being visible to the community
Slack support: moderation via Slack is an option (full Studio moderation coming soon)
Multi-lingual: the solution is multi-lingual by nature
Integrated with Monterosa Experiences: Seamlessly manages alongside other fan engagement experiences in the Monterosa ecosystem
The problem: when community building becomes a liability
The benefits of community commenting are significant but historically, moderation has been the blocker that prevents organisations from capturing this value.
The challenges are real: the time required to manually moderate conversations, the unreliability of basic automated filters, and the escalating costs of human moderation at scale. Many organisations have tried to implement live commenting features only to retreat when faced with these operational realities.
Introducing topic-centric moderation
Unlike other products, Live Comments will provide fans with a place to discuss topics set by editors, within parameters that can be controlled manually. This means no open conversation, without a pre-set topic and no 1:1s.
By setting topics or threads, organisations can encourage conversation that's relevant to specific themes while dramatically improving moderation capabilities based on the notion of being 'on-topic' and ‘topic deviation’.
AI-powered shadow moderation
Every message in any given topic will be moderated - not just flagged content, not just reported posts, but literally every comment. Using shadow moderation, fans see their comment posted immediately, preserving the real-time feel of live conversation, but the comment won't display to other users until it has been reviewed by AI.
For this beta version, moderation will be done in Slack, with the AI reviewing and choosing whether to accept or reject the message. Decisions can be reversed manually at any time.
This approach helps preserve community quality without confrontation. There's no jarring experience of deleted comments or public rejections. Instead, inappropriate content simply never reaches the broader community, while approved comments flow seamlessly into the conversation.
Built for integration and efficiency
Live Comments integrates seamlessly into the Monterosa ecosystem, meaning it can be managed alongside other fan engagement Experiences through a single platform. This integration eliminates the complexity and cost associated with managing multiple systems or vendors
Low Effort, High Confidence
By leveraging AI for primary moderation while maintaining human oversight through convenient Slack notifications, Live Comments delivers enterprise-grade community management at a fraction of traditional efforts.
Live Comments transforms community features from a liability into a strategic asset. Properly implemented fan engagement technology doesn't just create memorable fan experiences - it systematically converts attention into measurable business outcomes.
With Live Comments, organisations can finally capture the full value of community engagement: the increased session duration, the valuable first-party data collection, the enhanced loyalty through social connection, and the improved retention that comes from creating genuine community experiences.
The age of choosing between engagement and peace of mind is over. With Live Comments, you get both.
