---
title: "Shared, not live"
description: "Everybody on a server sees the same threads, and nobody sees anybody else typing — a choice, not a gap."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://commentware.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Shared, not live

Two people commenting on one page want to see each other's comments, and a
tool that showed every keystroke as it happened would need a connection that
stays open the whole time. Commentware gives the first and refuses the second:
it is _shared, not live_.

## What is shared

Everybody pointed at one server sees the same threads. While the overlay is open
on a page, somebody else's comment appears on it within a moment. A page you do
not have open is read fresh the next time you open the overlay there, and
anything addressed to you arrives as a
[notification](/docs/concepts/notifications/) within a minute either way.

## What is not live

There is no shared cursor. There is no presence and no typing indicator, two
people on one page do not see each other at all, and a thread does not change
under you while you are reading it except to gain comments somebody actually
sent.

## Why

Leaving out a live connection was a decision, not a gap. A live connection from
a browser extension needs a heartbeat and reconnect logic that can be quietly
broken for one user with nothing to show it. A comment that arrives a moment late is a
smaller harm than a connection that has silently stopped.

## Next steps

- [Read and silence notifications](/docs/using/notifications/): open the list of
  everything you were sent.