Copying comments (discussions)

Telegram channels support discussions or, as they are also called, comments. This feature is realized by attaching a discussion group to the channel in a special way. All comments reside technically in the group, but they are displayed as comments to specific posts in the channel.

In this context, if we say «channel», we mean the channel with the posts to which comments are created. If we say «group», we mean the discussion group that is attached to the channel and contains the comments themselves.

For the process of setting up copying comments, it is important to be able to find a group with comments, and not just look at the comments in the context of the channel. To find a group, enter the channel and click on the dots in the upper right corner of the screen, to the side of the channel name. From the pop-up menu, select «View Discussion». You will find yourself in a discussion group.

Please notice:

  • Copying comments only works on a direct connection.
  • To be able to set up comment copying, you need to join this group with a connected account and stay in it as a member.

Junction Bot supports two ways to copy comments: as separate posts and as comments.

Copying comments as separate posts

To set up copying comments as separate posts, create a forwarding rule from the discussion group to the destination. To do this, simply select a discussion group from the source selection list. It will only appear there if you have previously joined it with a connected account.

Note that you don’t have to have a forwarding rule from the channel itself for this method to work.

Copying comments as comments

To configure copy comments as comments, you will need two forwarding rules.

  1. The first forwarding rule must be from the source channel to the destination channel. No special settings are required on this forwarding.
  2. The second forwarding rule should be from the source discussion group to the destination discussion group. To do this, simply select the appropriate discussion groups from the source and destination selection lists. Note that these groups will only appear there if you have previously joined them with a connected account. Also, make sure in advance that the bot is an admin in the destination discussion group.

When both forwarding rules have been created, go to the setting for the second forwarding rule (from group to group) called «Comments for channel»:

Menu → Forwarding settings → Select source and destination → Comments for channel

Here you need to enter the source channel number. Not the number of a discussion group, but the number of main source channel. For instance, it may look like 2015095027.

That’s it, done!

Note that since comments technically belong to a group, in order for the copied comment to come on behalf of the name of the group (as is usually the case when comments are published by the channel administrator), you need to enable publishing on behalf of the account.

It’s also important to remember that copying comments will only work correctly for channel’s posts published after you enable this setting.