Depends. Having the comments linked to the actual post allows for more of the whole "instant gratification" thing that most people are accustomed to. It's not like the forums have been eliminated; there's still the potential for threads/discussions there, but having the comments immediately available on each post makes it easier for someone to filter through all the bullshit. I say keep the new structure.

I agree with Money. More instant and less of a pain to comment.

They are easier, but they are unlikely to start a discussion of any sort. Hell, I don't usually even read them. I'd say scrap them and stick to the slog.

The Comments feature make the SLOG page more addicting.

I always wondered why you didn't do comments, but now that I'm used to the forum I like it much better. The conversations are way better and it's easier to navigate to see what items are still active, making me more likely to revisit them. I cant imagine you ever posting much dialogue from these little comments boxes in your letters to the editor. The forums cultivate conversation and the comments just make it easy to make a jabby observation, the reaction to which I will probably never see or care about.

Can you do both? Can the comments on this page autofill into the forum?

Being that new slog entries are still being made "RE:" and the forums are more condusive to actual conversation, the comments should be nixed.

As an out-of-towner, I'm addicted to slog but don't read the forum unless it's specifically referenced or linked to. I haven't gotten in the habit of reading comments either, but I might be more likely to read here.

I love The Stranger. Even when I'm on the East Coast, it's great reading.

I too prefer the original format with a link to the SLOG forum.

The problem with this format is that inevitably you will have some idiot start the stupid "first" competition, and then you'll have people copying their comments to 20 posts, then you have the "off-topic" commentors...

by the way, I just finished reading "the Commitment" and I LOVED it. cried, laughed, all that stuff.

see what I mean about off topic comments?

Ummm, have BOTH. comments for instant FEEDBACK gratification, and the forum for DISCUSSIONS...

Give SLOG readers two linked option:

1. Comment

2. Discuss

It's a no brainer. Right?

But don't quick comments turn into discussions?

What Vida said. Comments are a good thing.

If there's a way to do both, perhaps we should. I've noticed that it's easier to look to the Slog Forum and see what was being discussed, and that posts about Slog items took on a life of their own—often more interesting and developed than the initial Slog post, which are often quickly dashed off thoughts/impressions or quick links.

I find myself having to scroll down through tons of Slog posts, constantly checking back to see if there are comments, or more comments. It was easier to keep track of comments, and keep up with them, in the Slog Forum.

So I'm torn. I like how immediate and relevant the comments are, but I think better, meatier stuff took form on the Slog Forums.

Oh, and thanks Angel.

What if a certain amount of comments (like say, 5) nominates a slog post to make it into Forums? I too miss the easy access of Forums.

The new comment system is a big improvement.

While the forums are a decent place for conversation to develop, they suffer from many usability problems. Finding a discussion about a particular topic was not always intuitive since the links on posts didn't point to an actual discussion and it wasn't immediately obvious if anyone had already started a thread about a particular topic. Comments have the advantage of being directly linked to the content being discussed. People will get used to the change. Viva los comments!

maybe I'm all old skool or something, but I love comment threads right on each post. It's all dKos or Atrios, you know? I admit that I never usually clicked through to the forums 'casue it just seemed like so damn much work. Maybe you could do best of all worlds and run SLOG on Scoop, which would allow for comments and diary-like mini-blogs.

I love comments

(more immediate than forum, and easier to get to)

The forum would be better if integrated to the Slog better.

There are some good arguments for both systems. I've often wished that there was a place for comments relevant to a specific SLOG post, but I understand that it's easier for content to get lost in these comments than in the forums.

I suggest that if you go back to using the forums, you consider making the "comments" link on each SLOG post refer directly to a particular forum thread rather than to the top-level SLOG-related forum page. There'd be some behind-the-scenes magic involved in having the first person who follows the comments link for a given SLOG post create a new forum thread (so as to avoid needlessly creating an empty thread for every post, to determine where to put the second comment if it's completed and submitted before the first, etc.), but that's why you're paying developers to do this custom work rather than using something off-the-shelf and free (WordPress, etc.), right? Doing so would provide some of the best of both options you've already tested.

Also, the ability to "subscribe" to a particular string-of-comments or thread, so updates to it would cause subscribers to be notified via e-mail, would be nice. Lots of Web forum software does this, allowing users to specify one e-mail per update, one per day during which there were updates, etc. Web forums suck compared to NNTP (think Usenet newsgroups) because you have to poll a bunch of individual Web sites, each with their own unique interface, to find updates rather than using one program that reads them all and alerts you in whatever manner you see fit. RSS and Atom help somewhat, but who wants to use a separate feed for every comment thread of interest?

The hard truth is that the forums produced better dialogue than most blogs' comment systems because they dissuaded people who thought the forums were "so damn much work". So, in this case, I'm inclined to discount arguments praising blog comments' simplicity and ease, as those factors also generate noise.

Speaking as a movable type hacker, it would be practical to let Slog authors provide an existing forum thread's URL, appearing in the same location as the "comments (n)" link does now, when they want to make point-and-click comments easier. That's a simple change which could amount to most of the best of both worlds.

The registration requirement at the forum would mean this improved hybrid still wouldn't be as easy as shooting one's mouth off in regular blog comments, but I'm already on record against that.

By way of disclosure, I was the Forum poster Dan quoted.

I'm happy to see the comments function. Indeed, I suggested it a while back, and was glad to see it implemented. I've never posted to the forums. Too much of a pain in the ass. I already posted a comment, because it's very clear how the comments relate to a given entry. Once people get used to it again, there will be conversations there. At least that's what I've seen on other blogs with heavy traffic.

But I don't think it necessarily needs to be mutually exclusive either. If some people like the forums, great. Keep those too.

This is just flat out better. Let's face it - The forums were dead.

When we started our website we did both comments and forum but the comments was the only thing that ever really took off. I suggest keeping both and maybe posting some open threads each day in the Slog where people can have an open discussion that doesn't have to be on topic.

I like the comments better. I only ever tried to go to the forums when someone linked there (and I cared about the conversation), and the link only took me to the forum "front page" --- maybe it's me, but I could never easily find which thread was referred to; and if I did find it, I couldn't easily find the particular post.

Hooray for comments! And hooray for comments popping up in a different window.

Comments need to stay. Please - for the love of all that's unholy, keep the comments!

I will occaisionally participate if I dont have a registration to fill out with password etc.

Otherwise I'll just read your posts.

Great Seattle blog!!!

RE: comments popping up in a different window:

Arrrgh! PLEASE don't do this! If I want to open a linked page in a new window, I'll middle-click, alt-click, cmd-click, right click and select "open in a new window" from the context menu, or whatever my browser understands to mean, "instead of the normal behavior of following a link in the current window, open this link in a new window." Realistically, I'm most likely to cause the comments to open in a new tab, but that's my choice to make as long as you use a regular link. Pretty please don't force new windows.

i hate registering for boards/forums.

i rarely commented before.

now i can say stupid shit all of the time.

chill out Phil. it's not like your mom died.