Reuters | GigaOM
Nick Denton is betting that comments will be a big new business for the future of Gawker Media. Felix Salmon explains how Gawker is reinventing comments and plans to sell advertisers the ability to create conversations. In an earlier memo, Denton wrote, "the days of the banner advertisement are numbered. In two years, our primary offering to marketers will be our discussion platform."

Will it work? Salmon points out the biggest potential flaw: "The problem here, for Denton — and the reason why he got an editorial guy to run this new project — is the old one: how to persuade his websites’ readers to read the sponsored posts and to engage in their comments sections."

Earlier: Denton's new advertising system may foreshadow a post-blogger future (Poynter) || Related: The problem with Facebook’s ad model (Technology Review) | Why GM and others fail with Facebook ads (Business Week).

The Next Web | Disqus
Google is developing a new article commenting system tied to its Google+ social network, an unnamed source tells The Next Web.

The Google comment system, which will almost certainly rival that of Facebook, will have deep links to Google’s network of services and websites, indexing comments in Google Search, and most significantly, the system will be available for use on third party sites.

Meanwhile, Disqus is beta-testing the next version of its popular commenting plugin, codenamed Disqus 2012. The biggest addition to the new version is a "community" tab that shows the most active discussions and the most frequent commenters across the site. (more...)

Digiday | CNN | Digital Test Kitchen | Winnipeg Free Press
If ever there were a slam-dunk case against allowing Internet comments, it would be in the launch plan for The Daily Beast's new Zion Square blog, about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which went up without them. Can you imagine the Backpage-like effort it would take to keep those readable? Josh Sternberg surveys some of the current thinking on comments:

There have been two main ways to deal with this problem. The absolutists view Internet commenting as messy but essential. The registrars believe real identities will do away with the willingness to spill bile. Neither solution is perfect, of course, because both are blunt approaches.

Sternberg leaves out people who do not value comments at all and those who believe anonymous commenting can be valuable (though perhaps he would include them in the "messy but essential" camp).

One of those people is Gawker boss Nick Denton, who recently told an audience at SXSW that while he thought anonymity is "at the heart of the Internet," he's lost faith in, or maybe just patience with, comments sections: "The idea of capturing the intelligence of the readership -- that's a joke," he said. Denton's next move is comments sections with a guest list: "What I want is, I want the sources -- I want the experts to be able to comment in these discussions."

Comments sections might not attract experts, but they're visited by a select group nonetheless. Digital News Test Kitchen is analyzing about three months' worth of comments from the Greeley Tribune, which doinked its comments section last May. So far it's found that 45 percent of the comments at the Tribune were written by 20 people, and it's promising "a textual analysis of the most-commented stories" from the final week Greeley allowed comments.

In Winnipeg, Free Press reporter Greg Di Cresce interviewed some of the paper's anonymous commenters. One, who goes by the handle Intangible, is so emboldened by the freedom of her new name that she's become a reliable advocate for mental health issues. Di Cresce also quotes Red River College journalism professor Duncan McMonagle, who told him, "That kind of freedom means a lack of personal responsibility." (more...)

The Washington Post Editor for interactivity and community Jon DeNunzio announces a new approach to comment moderation at washingtonpost.com, aimed at fostering "smarter, livelier and more civil conversations." The Post will be more aggressive about banning low-quality commenters, deleting any name-calling and insults, and eliminating the trolls who try "to incite emotional responses and disrupt conversations." There is positive reinforcement coming as well: More badges for good commenters and more Post reporters posting comments. || Earlier: New York Times overhauls comment system, grants privileges to trusted readers (Poynter) | How badges help news websites (Poynter) | Browse other coverage of website commenting trends and studies.

Disqus Product Blog | Infographic
One of the most popular commenting services for news websites and blogs says its data shows that commenters using pseudonyms are “the most important contributors to online communities.”

The service gives each user the option of commenting with a Disqus account, a social media identity or anonymously. It says 61 percent of commenters use pseudonyms, 35 percent choose to be anonymous and 4 percent use their "real identity" verified by Facebook. It also says those with pseudonyms post the best comments, while anonymous comments are lower quality. One theory: People don't mind being accountable online, but they don't want it to blow back on their work or personal lives by using a real identity. A pseudonym protects them while providing a measure of accountability. (more...)

MyCentralJersey.com
Paul C. Grzella, general manager of MyCentralJersey.com, the Home News Tribune and Courier News tells readers that user comments on the site, like other Gannett newspaper sites, were too often mean and off-topic. "By holding commenters accountable for their actions through Facebook, the hope is that this will help keep the conversation interesting and stimulating for the rest of us," he writes. An Oregon blogger summarized the reaction when the Statesman Journal in Salem announced the switch: It has "created a frenzy among the many rabid, profane, uninformed, hateful, and profoundly clueless people whose main joy in life is leaving anonymous flaming troll comments on the Internet." || Related: New York Times overhauls comment system, grants privileges to trusted readers (Poynter) | News sites using Facebook Comments see higher quality discussion, more referrals (Poynter) | Facebook comments can’t guarantee a lack of anonymity (Zombie Journalism)

Shelly Snider says she's the one who commented on the Pantagraph's website, saying a company knew of unsafe working conditions before a building collapsed this summer in Bloomington, Ill.

Snider said in a phone interview that she criticized the company in comments posted under two different user IDs and that the comments have since been deleted. The company, H.W. Holdings, says the comments were defamatory, demanding in court that the newspaper reveal the names of the commenters. The newspaper has agreed to do so.

As soon as Snider learned that, she said, she went on a couple of websites that had written about the issue and posted comments to the effect of, "I don't know what the big deal is; here I am." (more...)