While working on WORDS for Chrome (http://www.words4chrome.com, soft-launch 6+8=14), I've done a lot of thinking about the problems with web comments.
In short, it's two things:
1. The Clean Slate Effect - the ability to go from site to site being horrible everywhere, no centralized consequence mechanisms
2. The Too Much Trouble Effect - Creating a new account and giving up your email address yet again sucks. How long will the comment last? Will it be searchable? Does it use your real name? Whenever comments are Too Much Trouble, only crazies leave them.
WORDS doesn't have any comments in it yet and I'm still tinkering and testing getting ready for launch, but I'd appreciate your opinions on it.
1. The Clean Slate Effect - the ability to go from site to site being horrible everywhere, no centralized consequence mechanisms
2. The Too Much Trouble Effect - Creating a new account and giving up your email address yet again sucks. How long will the comment last? Will it be searchable? Does it use your real name? Whenever comments are Too Much Trouble, only crazies leave them.
WORDS doesn't have any comments in it yet and I'm still tinkering and testing getting ready for launch, but I'd appreciate your opinions on it.