Comments on Comments, Please

Tell us what you want.

After you help save that curvaceous crustacean lover with your generous donation here, please take the survey below. Tell us what changes you'd like to see in how we handle commenting on the site. If the blue in that torch logo on your right fills in, maybe we'll be able to do some of these things!

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Thank you!

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

I think threaded comments should be mandatory for everyone.

[John Tagliaferro]

I can spend all day submitting surveys. Perhaps a script is in order.

[Mango Punch]

WTF, I went to enter my Handle and it jumped to "thank you for taking this survey"

[Fist of Etiquette]

Blame Tagliaferro's script.

[John C. Randolph]

Threaded comments are good. Being able to vote them up or down would be better.

-jcr

[joshua corning]

Bullshit...everyone hates me and my posts would never see the light of day!!!

[Kyle Jordan]

Ha!

[Kyle Jordan]

On a more serious note, is the last option "Greater Ability to Format your Comments" supposed to only have a "1" option? That's why I posted the "Ha!" because it'a good joke. Or is my computer fucking it up?

[Spoonman]

It's not supposed to be that way, but that's what I picked anyways.

[John]

I notice they didn't give an opportunity to object to threaded comments. Why do they need any of that crap? The old system was simple and elegant and worked fine. For God's sake don't make people register. The last thing I need is another password to forget.

[John Tagliaferro]

Yes they did. It is near the bottom "this is where you get to complain about threaded comments".

[Qualis Artifex Pereo]

Registration sucks and all, but I kind of like the feature on The Economist's comment sections where you can click on someone's username and it will bring up a history of all of their comments. I think if H&R promised that feature I'd have no problem registering.

[Adam]

As long as I can stay registered on my two computers so that I never, ever, ever, ever, ever have to actually do anything to log in. I don't even want to click a "log in" button.

[Lamar]

I like that feature.

[bigbigslacker]

Those of us who like to drink a little won't have much interest in that "feature".

[alan]

Gahh, woah, woah, let's not get crazy here.

[briareus]

"I notice they didn't give an opportunity to object to threaded comments."

Genius, they did. The bottom option says in obviously legible english text "Here's where you get to complain about threading."

[Mango Punch]

For people who don't have time to read everyone's comments, threaded comments make sense. You can have discussion and debate without having to worry about missing someone's point and wasting time reading comments that don't pertain to the discussion you're having. The old system is only better if 1) you have a lot of time, 2) you are ok with scrolling through or reading everything everyone writes or 3) you don't have back and forth discussions in the comments

[prolefeed]

In the comments, I proposed having a threaded / unthreaded toggle so people could choose which works for them.

First time through a thread, I prefer threaded comments. If I go through again, I prefer unthreaded so I can see what was added since I last viewed it.

[tarran]

Slashdot allows people to view comments both as being threaded and in a flat form based on user preference.

Perhaps something along those lines would work.

[John Tagliaferro]

-1 redundant

[John]

I find the slashdot comment threads to be absolutely unreadable. And their registration system is a serious pain in the ass. Leave things the way they are.

[?]

Undo the fuckgrade.

I hate threads anyway, but the reply to this links are dead "reset form" calls (matching no loaded form) in every browser I've used to view the site. And it'd be kinda cool if all the comments displayed the name of who posted them. About half of them still don't.

Does this shit only work in Explorer and Firefox for Windows? I don't have those.

[Squirrel]

We test everything in IE/Win, FF/Win, Safari/Mac, & FF/Mac. What platform and browser are you using?

[robc]

FF/Linux for me.

Most things seem to be working fine. Really, no linux testing? You dont even need to install machine, just use an Ubuntu live CD if you want.

[Bronwyn]

Ooh, robc. Maybe you'd be willing to help me out. I just bought a netbook running Ubuntu. I'm wondering about upgrading to 9.10 but don't know quite how.

[robc]

Under system/administration/software sources

Choose the updates tab
For release upgrades, select "normal releases"

Then go to system/administration/update manager

It will check for new packages and at top will say something like "9.10 now available" Click on the button to upgrade to it and prepare to wait. Lots of packages to download at that point. Just answer yes to everything.

[Squirrel]

We do Browsercam screenshots to check for rendering issues on FF/Linux, but we don't actually test all functionality on it. I'll fire up a VM today and give it a look. What version of FF are you running?

[robc]

My work machine: 3.0.whatever
Home machine: 3.5
Laptop: 3.5 since the weekend when I did an ubuntu upgrade

3.5 blows. 3.0 is much more stable.

[briareus]

Whether you test on linux or not apparently does not matter, since firefox in my slackware, sourcemage, and debian systems all function normally/predictably here at H&R.

[Tonio]

Google Chrome under Windows for me.

[One Off]

Needs JS enabled for names to display properly. Rather annoying for noscript users.

[hmm]

I'm a little bummed out pie and the leather jacket didn't make the survey.

[south of hell]

DO NOT MAKE US FUCKING REGISTER! THAT'S LIKE HITLER!

[P Brooks]

Threaded comments should die from a spurting neck wound.

[robc]

This.

🙂

The word this is fucking english, you fucking piss poor piece of english detection.

[P Brooks]

Registration BAD.

[SugarFree]

I 3'ed everything except email updates. I have a huge pipe of shit pointed at my email addresses as is.

And I want to be able to put images in posts. So I can make good on my threat.

[WWJGD]

Somehow I think goatse will go well alongside that Rand/Greenspan pic.

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

Dear Reason,
If you allow commenters to put images in posts, SugarFree will be able to put images in posts. 'Nuff said.

[briareus]

/me shudders.

[toto]

I'm assuming commenting will remain completely unfiltered. If it's not I will kill every Reason staff member.

[bigbigslacker]

I'll eat the remains.

[yum]

I'll eat your shit when you shit out the remains.

[alan]

I'll turn your shit into aromatherapy candles to savor while doing my morning auto-erotic tantic exercises.

[prolefeed]

I proposed allowing individuals to create their own banhammer filters, since I can't figure out how to make fucking INCIF work, and it would be sweet to not have to view STFULW ever again.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm disappointed that Adnotatiunculae bilicis delenda est wasn't an option, though I did comment on threaded comments with some commentary on comments that are threaded.

The one '3' I gave was for greater formatting options. That would be cool. I believe we used to be able to do lists and some other things which would be useful at times, and I'm sure there are other features we could have today.

I wonder if we could set up our own stylesheets as registered commenters? I call Helvetica 12pt, justified!

[Pro Libertate]

Oh, yes, I'd like them to tone down the spam filtering. Frankly, enduring what spam there was before was less painful than the various error messages I get for using an umlaut or too many links.

[Zerst?rer]

No umlauts? Racist!

[Jozef]

We need a system that would automatically kick in the balls anyone who Goodwins a thread.

[Citizen Nothing]

Sounds like something Hitler would do.

[Citizen Nothing]

OWWWWW!

[John Tagliaferro]

I am getting a kick out of the donor handles.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I'm a tad disappointed I haven't seen that anyone has used "stfu LoneWacko" yet.

[prolefeed]

Someone has.

[P Brooks]

I can ignore MaunderingNannyGoat's comments.

I can detect and ignore spam.

[John Tagliaferro]

I already use that nifty scroll function that came with my computers for that. Do you do the same?

[Citizen Nothing]

I'm not sure what the big problem would be with OPTIONAL commenter registration.
What am I missing?

[ray]

it will croud out the private option

[briareus]

touche.

[Warty]

The spam filter hasn't stopped anonymity douche, so it's clearly a failure. Give me back the ability to post upside-down question marks, fuckasses.

[Pro Libertate]

Yep, doesn't work. Even one special character--an inverted exclamation mark--gets me the classic, "Your comment does not appear to be written in an English script. Please comment in English."

Who instituted this script, LoneWacko?

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

I think he asked the Squirrel ToughQuestions on video and threatened to upload them to YouTube.

[EJM]

Has anyone else had problems with the hidden comments that are now used on the article-related posts (as opposed to the regular posts, like this one)? Whenever I try to display the comments in those posts (or, on some occasions, when I just view the post itself), it messes up my browser (IE, running on XP).

[briareus]

Go kick Bill Gates in the balls.

[JW]

Nope. It works for me in either EI or FF.

[brotherben]

I followed you link and clicked on the comments and about 10 minutes later I finally got it shut down and restarted. So I guess that's a yes. IE and XP BTW.

[P Brooks]

I get the "not in english" boot just for using some of my (admittedly) more idiosyncratic formatting.

And- when I blame some of my more egregious errors on the keyboard; I think it's some sort of machine conspiracy.

[John Tagliaferro]

It isn't really a machine conspiracy. It is Mayan saboteurs. Look for tiny Mayan shoes under the keys.

[Winsor Beano]

Personally, I think things are pretty cool just the way they are. Why change??

RT
http://www.ultimate-privacy.cz.tc

[ray]

karma!

[hmm]

It's bad when the Spam is mocking you in a thread about how to make comments better.

Someone has to be trolling with the spam bot.

[prolefeed]

The "spam-bot" almost appears to be a real person -- the comments are no longer randomish sounding.

[James]

The up side of the registration is people would actually have to take responsibility for the shit they say.

[ray]

that's also the downside... me like a bit of flavour

[JW]

Registration would cut down on the spoofing, which is cute for about 3 milliseconds.

[briareus]

Registration is also the first step to being shoved into ovens.

[JW]

As long as we don't have to wear flair, I'm OK with that.

[robc]

I voted for registration, but I do enjoy posting rambling nonsense as "Abe Simpson"

[briareus]

I voted against rating comments, but for that hypocrisy you sir earn a -1.

[robc]

Its not hypocrisy. Its a sacrifice Im willing to make to get rid of the more annoying spoofers.

I might have changed my mind since the vote too. The more I think about it, the more I hope registration loses. Oh well, its not like its the first time Ive ever regretted a vote Ive cast (Bush 1988).

[briareus]

Uh, it was a joke.

[prolefeed]

Fuck registration. How unlibertarian.

[Abe Simpson]

I voted for it too.

[alan]

Optional registration would be an improvement and do just that. However, mandatory registration would kill my cast of cute and lovable critters, and that would make the world a much gloomier place.

[alan]

Oh, and names of public personalities, 'Obama', 'Ted Kennedy', 'Dubya', should never be allowed to be registered to one person. That would be rent seeking, and we all know that is wrong.

[BeesInTheBrain]

The down side is that the gubment would come along and try to enforce it.

[Johnny Longtorso]

Let us filter out the 7 words George Carlin can't say on TV. Some of us read this at work.

[robc]

fuck you

[Warty]

You're not allowed to read fuck and cunt at your job? Better find a less shitty job, fuckface.

[briareus]

excellent.

[P Brooks]

Fuck that shit.

[John Tagliaferro]

FoE,

I'm a tad disappointed I haven't seen that anyone has used "stfu LoneWacko" yet.

$25 an you can get it up there yourself. I am enjoying the appearance of diversity that is fading in and out now.

[Fist of Etiquette]

My disappointment had more to do with my expectations from this crowd than with any animosity to the that particular commenter.

Also, I got a couple better ideas to put up on the banner when I get drunk enough to kick in more money.

[JW]

I read this at work and don't have a problem with naughty words. Hell, vulgarity and obscenities are 2 of the biggest reasons I come here.

[JB]

I asked them to keep anonymity and no moderation.

Hate to see this place end up like all the other fiefdoms where the feudal lords censor all.

[briareus]

Agreed.

Besides, once moderation starts, God rapes a kitten.

[John Tagliaferro]

Looks like threading is dead on this, er, thread. The rest are still new format.

Happy everybody?

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

Threading is dead? And why won't it remember me anymore? WTF?!

[Nick]

Should I take the survey again to add more "other changes" I thought of after I hastily bitched about threaded comments and hit Submit?

Ah, I'll just say it here.

Please make handles orange again if someone has an e-mail or website entered. Invisible underlines are retarded.

Unscrew the thing that caused html links to get retarded.

Re-test everything to do with IE because I'm pretty sure you lie if you say any of those tests passed. For instance, I have to copy my comment in the 99% chance it fails to post when I hit Submit. Seriously, do you have any testers? Or do you just trust the IT unit testing?

Yo, fuck the English Only requirement.

If SugarFree posts images and it gets me fired, I'm going Squirrel hunting...unless you guys hire me as a tester. You clearly need one.

The old view was easier on the eyes.

[SugarFree]

It's not like I want to flood the board with porn. I just want to illustrate my posts occasionally.

I mean The Ayn Rand Diet: The Only Logical Path to Weightloss is funnier if you don't have to click through for the picture.

[Marshall Gill]

Illustrate your posts? And this wouldn't be porn how?

[SugarFree]

For example.

Don't the pictures make it better?

[Marshall Gill]

Science, when will I learn!

[prolefeed]

How about a lite sprinkling of porn?

[prolefeed]

Cause that's what you're gonna get, at a minimum.

[briareus]

There was a problem posting your comment
* Your post (#1453443) has been marked as spam by a third-party spam filter. If this is a mistake, please email [e-mail].

...I had simply typed the word "excellent."

[robc]

I had to add a 3rd word to my "fuck you" post below. Apparently short messages are now "spam".

[Art-P.O.G.]

Ha! I had the same thing happen to me before.

[robc]

fuck you censor

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

What did ProL ever do to you?

[robc]

You dont want to know.

That was aimed at Longtorso, but I guess ProL is the reason censor or record, so yeah, trust me, you dont want to know.

[SugarFree]

Registration would suck without strong "remember me" protocols. I sometimes post from three or four "computers" a day. Registering them everytime would be a pain in the ass.

[Brick]

"Yo, fuck the English Only requirement."

I agree. Why would other languages be excluded? What's the putative value?

[P Brooks]

I'll give up my right to post as Paul Krugman when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.

[SugarFree]

Maybe mutable handles by registrable email addresses? Once you sign in, no matter who you post as, it can still be identified as you. And throw-away email address (like mine) take about two minutes to set up if they want to send a verify email.

[Brick]

"I had to add a 3rd word to my "fuck you" post below. Apparently short messages are now "spam"."

Yes. I have gotten the spam message for simply trying to post "thanks"

[bigbigslacker]

I'm waiting to see Anonymity Guy in the banner.

[Kyle Jordan]

Ok, apparently my woefully out of date browser will not allow me to completely see the poll and vote.

So Reason, here's what I got to say...

Fuck threaded comments. Get rid of them AS SOON AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE!

No registration.

Pics in the comments would be awesome!

That's what I care about.

[robc]

I oppose pics in the comments. It tends to break browsers because people dont size them right (just because you read at 1200x1600 doesnt mean everyone else does). Links are fine, just because SF cant make them work isnt the rest of ours problem.

[P Brooks]

including the ability for you to reserve your commenter name.

Did Lefiti put you up to this?

[Art-P.O.G.]

Don't worry, "24dollarsforheadontcum" is way more clever than actually using his handle.

[hurly buehrle]

Can't we just be libertarians and leave the comment system as what it's evolved into? No registration, free reign viz., obscenity, etc. etc.

Why f--- up something that's working?

[Pro Libertate]

Revolution is a libertarian concept.

[hurly buehrle]

Not quite sure what's so revolutionary about any of the proposed changes, but OK.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm just kidding. I'd be okay with things the way they were. If we must have change, I'd like a sequential threading view option and maybe some better formatting control, but that's about it.

[alan]

I answered in the affirmative things that I would be willing to put up with, not really anything I desire to have. I bet a lot of us unconsciously made that distinction, and it wont be properly accounted for when they total the poll results.

[Lamar]

Logging in and reserving your commenter name would effectively end the practice of using a handle as part of the comment. You know, when the comment says "Fine wine is really just rape grapes", then you look to see that the handle is Ayn Rand.

[Ska]

Quick - register Tony, Morris, and Chad. I can live with the other ones but those three handles are unbearable fonts of donkey shit.

[Brick]

Registration = Suppression

The University of Minnesota's student paper, The Daily, switched to registrated commenting this year.

Last year, there were hundreds and hundreds of comments posted to their stories. This year, maybe a comment once in a rare while.

It really does quash free speech.

Reason, why do you hate freedom?

[Kyle Jordan]

Oh and no censoring. I would stop commenting and contemplate leaving.

[kinnath]

Registration and moderation would certainly increase my productivity during the day.

[brotherben]

I don't know what the rush is to "upgrade" the commenting. The only bitch everyone seems to have is about the current upgrades.
The really good spoofers identify themselves after the fact and the shitty ones are so over the top it is obvious and dies a quick death.
Spam is annoying but not real common.
This isn't Myspace or facebook and we don't really need avatars and pics and bios and all that.
I prefer that the comments remain unobstructed and unpunished. Most here have a high tolerance for bullshit, vulgarity and outright lunacy and we tend to be self regulatory.

In your quest to refine the comments section, don't forget who you are and what you believe.

[Brick]

I'd post "Amen" brotherben, but experience tells me it'll be kicked back as spam.

[Art-P.O.G.]

Well said indeed, brotherben.

[P Brooks]

Registration and moderation would certainly increase my productivity during the day.

"Ich auch," he muttered.

[hurly buehrle]

I will say "Amen" to brotherben's thoughts there.

[Warty]

Amen; fuck you.

[brotherben]

Whoever is spoofing Warty, you need to raise the level of vulgarity substantially to make it a plausible spoof.

[Warty]

Sir, though I desire nothing more than that this missive shall find you at the pinnacle of health, I must confess that your stated disbelief in the veracity of my identity is exceedingly vexatious to me.

[John Tagliaferro]

I don't know what the rush is to "upgrade" the commenting. The only bitch everyone seems to have is about the current upgrades.

Without another upgrade then we get the same old complaining about the last upgrade. We need freshness.

The last submit ate my post.

Preview is missing from this rendering and threading is broken here too, but looks like a problem on my computer not your server.

Also, most of the handles are missing, like whoever posted "Ich auch," he muttered.

Would be nice if we could reserve handles, one per user.

[BeesInTheBrain]

Please have the EFF review any changes to the registration and data retention policy you implement.

[Brick]

Reason cramming these upgrades down the throats of its commentors is no different than Congress cramming the healthcare bill and cap and trade down out throats.

It's all about the power.

[Mister DNA]

For the record, I went ahead and kicked in the $25 needed to get "STFU, Lone Wacko!" up there.

Yeah, I screwed it up and it's Lone Wacko, not LoneWacko.

[Mister DNA]

evern worse, it's Lonewacko, not LoneWacko.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I'll take the blame for that. (I'm not reimbursing you the $25, thought.)

[Mister DNA]

I'll tell you what: If you (or any other Reason server squirrel) can reformat that lower-case w, I'll pony up another 25 bucks. (I'd like to put another entry in the donor banner... a nice one, this time)

[John Tagliaferro]

For the record, I went ahead and kicked in the $25 needed to get "STFU, Lone Wacko!" up there.

That's the part that counts.

[Politech]

Comment editing - after - posting. This will help correct spelling errors and such. Maybe limit it to one or two post-comment edits with an additional notification that the post has been re-edited at the bottom of the comment. Possibly limit this function to the high-scoring, regular, contributive commenter.

Offer a "journal" ability to regular posters who have earned good enough scores to prove their regularly adding of value to the Reason.com community. Combined with scoring, voting, and participation tracking, journaling could also be scored and also possibly offer a method whereby a good journal entry by a well ranked comment participant could be added to the "Hit and Run" front page by Reason.com site administrators/moderators.

"Votes" or "post scoring" should only be enabled for these same type users. High scoring, regularly contributive comment posters would receive moderator privileges every so often, and thus the Reason.com community can be more sure of the value of the comment scores themselves. This would limit abuse of the voting/comment ranking system.

Comment ranking should have an upper and lower limit to scoring. This would encourage members with scoring privileges to consider more comments for scoring than they might otherwise, and keep one comment from having hundreds of votes while another comment added later receives few votes despite adding great value to the discussion. Once a comment is plus or minus 7 or 10 votes the reader with scoring privileges can move on to the scoring of later additional comments. This will also help readers to filter out low scored comments with less chance of missing a "good comment".

Limit text formatting options to only the bare minimum (bold, italics, hyper-link and strike) this will preserve the integrity of the look and feel of Reason.com. The same goes with avatars, they offer little value and many times only serve to detract from the usefulness of the comment section.

Optional registering, if you want to score posts, you register.

No image posting, the image may be worth a thousand words, but I would rather read than look at pictures.

My 2 cents worth.

[Paul Krugman]

MEEEEEEEEP!!!1

[PoliTech]

Your comment has been forwarded to the Danvers Police Department.

/Meeping meepers, when the meep will they ever learn?

[robc]

No scoring, see the clusterfuck that is slashdot for why it is a bad idea.

[Politech]

My thinking here is under the assumption that the survey you see above is actually a "Roadmap" of where the modmins are taking the site.

[robc]

Im not sure. I think they just threw a kitchen sink of possibilites out there (probably by looking at some available forum software). Getting rid of threaded comments would be a good start.

Threading makes sense ONLY in a system in which distinguishing new/old posts is easy. USENET/EMAIL - threading good. WWW - threading bad.

[John Tagliaferro]

Are you the slashcode marketing department?

[Politech]

Good catch, but you have just as well have asked if I were a denizen of numerous other sites that have richly developed comment communities.

And yes I am a long time SlashDot contributor.

[Paul Krugman]

Asking the governed for their consent?

Preposterous.

[Paul Krugman]

richly developed comment communities.

*rolls eyes*

[Nick]

My 2 cents is that I disagree with pretty much everything Politech said. Even editing is a bad idea here because we sometimes argue and like to use each other's comments as proof someone said something stupid. Everything else, well, it just becomes work at that point. The beauty of H&R has always been it's free style format.

[Politech]

I'll concede the point about post comment editing being subject to abuse, and possibly detracting to the integrity of the conversation but I sure could have used it in my grammar free reply to John T up there.

[robc]

fuck grammar.

[Paul Krugman]

richly developed comment communities

*rolls eyes*

[spam i am aka P Brooks]

richly developed comment communities

*rolls eyes*

-clears throat-

FUCK YOU SPAM SQUIRREL! ME CATCH SQUIRREL MAIL TO STEVE SMITH IN TIGHTLY SEALED UNWASHED MAYONNAISE JAR!

[Politech]

Now that is one of the dumbest comments I have seen here today. Good job!

Oh! And right back at ya pally!

[brotherben]

I can't spell "hermetically" either.

[P Brooks]

If there is a more "richly developed commenting community" than this one, I would like to know where it is.

If you don't like sand in your hair, stay out of the sandbox.

[Politech]

SlashDot (since it was already brought up - and not by me)

Your nonsense is no bother, just expect replies that will be every bit as sweet and accommodating as yours, except my replies will actually be somewhat intelligent.

[robc]

slashdot sucks. The weird scoring and default settings and threading makes following comments lousy. I stopped reading slashdot comments almost a decade ago for that reason.

[Politech]

I like SlashDot, although there is always room for improvement.

I guess you could use page hits as your yardstick to measure the overall usefulness of comment system tweaks.

Which site currently has more page views?

[robc]

Umm...quantity is not a measure of quality.

[Politech]

But quantity *is* a measure of banner ad payment.

Or do you think Reason.com begging for charity is a good thing?

[robc]

There are ads on the internet? When did that happen? How come I dont get to see them? Oh thats right, adblock.

The reason foundation has been "begging" for donations since the day they were founded. I have no problems with that.

[Politech]

Not very Randian though, is it?

[robc]

1. Im not an objectivist
2. I dont see how it isnt libertarian - controlling the bits that come into my computer is the ultimate in property rights.

[Politech]

I completely agree with you in regards to your computer and what software you run. I also use adblocking software.

Keep in mind though, that there are only 8 million or so people that use AdBlock software daily compared to the one billion and five hundred million Internet users, (the last time I checked).

Ads==clicks==payments for the site.

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

Dear Politech,
Yes, Slashdot has more pageviews than Reason. Yes, Slashdot has a different commenting system than Reason. However, correlation is not the same as causation.

Sorry bout that. Better luck next time!

[Politech]

The correlation~causality platitude is yours not mine. (never mind the illogic of using the phrase as you did)

You can't possibly mean to suggest that the *cause* of the survey *correlates* to plenty of page-views, and reason.com doesn't want any more than what they are logging currently.

It could very well be that the reason Reason.com wants to change (ostensibly to improve) the comment system to drive *even more* traffic to the site than it is receiving currently.

Try no to feel too bad, its not you ... its them, they just want to see other people.

Really ... try harder.

[Pro Libertate]

I have a proposal. Hit & Run should not allow a comment to be published before it has been vetted through a peer-review process. The reviewers would consist of a small body--say twelve--long-term commenters, who will review the comments for grammar, spelling, substance, wit, and substantiation. They will also be responsible for verifying citations and that sort of thing.

[SugarFree]

And what, pray tell, would you suggest as the name for such a group?

[Warty]

Silence! The robot elders will not permit such a thing!

[Pro Libertate]

The Blog Overlords?

[Joe H]

The Comment Czars, what else?

[Pro Libertate]

The Priests of the Temple of Syrinx.

[SugarFree]

I figured you'd want to go with "Censors."

[Pro Libertate]

Well, that's the real name, I just wasn't going to tell you that.

[Pro Libertate]

Small body of. See? We need editors and reviewers!

[P Brooks]

Will there be a Court of Appeals?

[Pro Libertate]

Of course not.

[robc]

I just want a damn preview button.

[P Brooks]

And what, pray tell, would you suggest as the name for such a group?

Insane Clown Posse is taken.

Shit!

[Tyler]

You should be able to reply to comments directly (threaded comments), but the replies should be hidden from others unless they want to see them in which case they have to click something (like a "see X replies" button).

[robc]

All responses I have come up with to this are not considered english.

[Reformed Republican]

Just revert to the way things were before the threaded comments were added. Save your damn money, and don't throw it away to try to fix something that was not broken to begin with.

[robc]

What he said.

[Jennifer]

The comment system here was perfectly fine until some bonehead had to go and "fix" it to hell and beyond. Lose the threaded comments, lose the all-black lettering for people whose names are also links, and deport LoneWacko back to whatever the hell asylum he escaped from before posting here.

[Abdul]

Is there a way we could force Joe to comment here again?

[Naga Sadow]

I'm gonna take a page from Thoreau's book.

We should invite him back to HnR with flowers, chocolates, and apologies. Then promptly ban him. Ad infinitum.

[joshua corning]

I will come to your house and kill you!!!

[Pro Libertate]

Why? I've learned all the argumentative fallacies already--no need to learn them again.

[bigbigslacker]

Vote scoring is lame. I do it at youtube just to be because I am a dick. The most vile, hateful, and stupid comments get a thumbs up. If the comment is racist I give it one thumb up, wait for the timeout period and then give it other thumbs up. Insightful comments about the ignorance of the haters always get thumbs down. As much as I enjoy it, let's not bring that stupid group think crap here. If it happens, I'll make sure anonymity guy is the most popular poster here.

[brotherben]

I bet you votefortheworst on American Idol as well.

[Naga Sadow]

Brotherben: Thumbs down. 😉

See? We don't need such a system. We can do it on our own.

[Naga Sadow]

Jennifer's comments should have the force of law on HnR!! You hear that server squirrel?

[Jennifer]

I will abandon my disdain for threaded comments long enough to point out that Naga Sadow's suggestions should be taken very seriously indeed.

[Lamar]

The good: your comments have the force of law.

The bad: we're all anarchists.

[Naga Sadow]

Well, I answered one on everything then bitched about threaded comments in the comment box. But . . .

If we do have avatars and such, we need a sort of timestamp gif so no more of the older commenters get insulted as noobs. Say one for 6 months, a year, 2 years, 5 years, etc.

[P Brooks]

Getting insulted as a noob (*by* a noob)is highly entertaining.

[Naga Sadow]

Suki called Abdul a noob and a troll. Something must be done. I suspect getting Suki banned is out of the question.

[Abdul]

Mean comments like that should come with mandatory sensitivity training.

[P Brooks]

Banning? No.

Shunning and ignoring, on the other hand...

*surreptitiously indicates toffee-nosed slashdot pedant Doktor Professor Politech*

[Politech]

Thank you P Brooks PHD, a tip of the hat to you too.

/PHD ... Piled High and Deep 😉

[John Tagliaferro]

NS,

When did she do that? I only remember her giving you and Warty the smackdown.

[Abdul]

I live in Lowell, Massachusetts, am an urban planner, and am listed in the phonebook under "Boyle, J. P."

[Pro Libertate]

We should force all known trolls to register as trolls. No restrictions on them posting or anything, just a little troll icon that gets posted with their names, quite automatically.

[John Tagliaferro]

Second.

[Agent Provacateur]

What P Brooks said....

[GILMORE]

I dont mind the threading so much

H&R does a good job just the way it is.

We must also preserve troll rights: without them the world is a sterile and uninteresting place.

[GILMORE]

Politech|11.13.09 @ 12:17PM|#

Comment editing - after - posting. This will help correct spelling errors and such.

And/or getting your ass in trouble!

Second the motion.

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

In the comments, I proposed having a threaded / unthreaded toggle so people could choose which works for them.

Flattening threaded comments suck because people who use the threading don't quote enough to give context in the flat form (the threading does that for them, afterall).

I asked for either

1) No threaded comments

or

2) A "visible updates" mode.

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

Oh, and names of public personalities, 'Obama', 'Ted Kennedy', 'Dubya', should never be allowed to be registered to one person.

Good point.

Posting something all to true in a public figure's persona is too valuable to lose...

[Rhywun]

I don't care about any of the fancy features mentioned in the survey, and I don't like the threading. That stuff works on some forums, but not here. KISS (keep it simple, stupid).

[Mark Lambert]

I vote NO on the threading, and the voting on comments (hey, every site doesn't have to be a Facebook clone). On the other hand, I really don't care that much. Like the site as it is, though.

[Abercrombie and Fitch]

good!

[Abercrombie and Fitch]

good!

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[joe]

Registered names and logins, to prevent spoofing. But also allow non-registered, one-off names because sarcastic names are an important tradition around here.

[joe]

Fix the bug where all the comments section data downloads, but the comments don't appear, when you first view a page. Either default the comments to be visible (preferred fix) or spare us the initial download time.

[joe]

If you're gonna have mobile apps, make them support commenting.

[joe]

Spoof handles are a cherished tradition around here, but it would be cool to be able to password protect one's primary handle.

[Morgan Freeman Voiceover]

In the end, threaded comments won. Minor bitching still happens, but for the most part, the commentators were able to deal with it.

The day came when Sugarfree was able to post pictures. It was quickly shutdown to save humanity.

John and MNG continue to wage the war that has been occurring at least since the John/Joe war many years ago. New participants come and go, but the battle rages on forever.

No one ever heard from Lonewacko again. Me? I like to imagine he is out there with his flip camera asking the tough questions and posting them to youtube.

[Canman]

HR's comment section could be an opportunity to promote Reason's position on internet gambling. Allow each commenter to place a bet on his comment and vote for the best wagered comment of each post. Winner takes all minus Reason's cut.

[Election Commission]

I think threaded comments should be mandatory for everyone.
Voter ID
Election commission of India