We are going to start phasing out reader commenting features across the website by March 18th, 2024. This will remove functionality like:
- Commenting on posts
- Following comment threads
- Getting notifications about comments from users you follow
The reasons for that are:
- Discussions happen elsewhere; there are dedicated services where communities have discussions like Social, Reddit, HN, and more.
- Spam has grown exponentially; fighting spam is becoming increasingly difficult for a small team like ours. Most of the comments we moderate are malicious attempts to build links and SEO hacks.
- Legal challenges: the legal requirements make user commenting practically impossible for international publishers.
We are planning on new features that will provide our community with more meaningful ways to engage with each other, especially around Trend Reports. So stay tuned!