Siftsy Knowledge Base
Analyzing Comment Sections

How to analyze sentiment over time

Chart sentiment and Siftsy Scores by day, week, or month to see how reactions change. You can add comment volume to the chart, and clicking any point shows the comments from that period.

Before you start

Open a collection, go to Analysis, and scroll to the Siftsy Score section of Comment Analysis.

Turn on the chart

  1. In the Siftsy Score section, click the score view button to open the Score View menu

  2. Check Chart

    • You can keep Bar checked too. Both views can be on at the same time.

Score View menu with Chart checked

Change how the chart is grouped

  1. Click the settings summary above the chart (for example, Comment date · Month · Sentiment breakdown) to open Chart settings

  2. Under Date by, choose Comment or Post

  3. Under Group by, choose 12 hours, Day, Week, Month, or Year

  4. Under Breakdown, choose Sentiment, Content, Topic, Relevance, Consensus, or None (Siftsy Score)

    • Breakdowns are shown as Share of comments (%)

  5. Under Show on chart, check the sentiment levels you want to plot

  6. Optionally, set Score overlays, turn on Show comment volume, or set Highlight From/To to shade a date range

Chart settings panel with Date by, Group by, Breakdown, and Show on chart options
Group by dropdown showing 12 hours, Day, Week, Month, and Year

Highlighting shades dates on the chart without filtering them. You can also drag across the chart to highlight a range.

You can also switch between comment date and post date from the toggle next to the chart legend (Switch to post date). Use All dates in the chart toolbar to set the date range.

Add comment volume

  1. Click the volume icon in the chart toolbar

  2. Turn on Show comment volume

    • Volume shows the number of analyzed comments in each period, drawn as bars on the right axis

  3. Optionally, choose whether to count Comments or Posts, adjust the Min/Max comments slider, or check Hide periods under 5 comments. Use Show all periods to reset

Sentiment chart with comment volume bars on the right axis
Chart settings panel with the Show comment volume options

See the comments from a period

  1. Hover over any point on the chart. You'll see Click for period details · Drag to highlight

  2. Click the point to open the period card

    • The card shows the period and comment count (for example, Feb 2026 · 862 comments), plus SCORE, SENTIMENT, VOLUME, and the dominant sentiment share

  3. Click the search button on the card (for example, Search Neutral comments from this period)

Period details card for Feb 2026 with score, sentiment, volume, and a search button

A new search tab opens with filters already applied, for example Sentiment: Neutral and Comment date: Feb 2026.

Full screen and export

  • Click Open chart full screen to view the chart in a larger Scores over time dialog

  • Click Export over time to export the chart data

What's next

Drill into the periods you highlight with the filters in How to filter comments, and sort the results with How to sort comments by timestamp.

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