America?s next top commenters

We?re still working out the kinks in the new comments system. I?m told, for instance, that by the end of the day, users will be able to sort comments in the order they prefer (starting with the most recent or starting with the first, for instance). I know IT is working hard on the load times. But there are some cool features to the new comment system that I want to tell you about, and solicit your help with.

For one thing, you can reply to one another. Just go to a comment you want to take issue with and click the ?reply? button. Rather than your response appearing at the top of the comment thread, it will appear next to the comment it?s about ? and then the original author, or subsequent authors, can reply in turn to you.

You can also ?like? or ?flag? comments ? effectively voting them up or down. This matters, because the default view is ?top comments? rather than ?all comments.? This annoyed me at first, but I now have a slightly better idea of what can be done with it. Which brings me to ?badges.?

The new commenting system gives me the ability to empower consistently thought-provoking commenters with badges. The badges mean that your comments will show up in the ?top comments? section all across the site ? so when anyone clicks on a comment page, you?ll be the first thing they see. I rather like this plan, as it gives me a way to thank those of you who are putting real time and effort into the site. It also gives me a way to ensure that readers just browsing the comments will initially see the comment section at its best, rather than its worst.

I?m going to award the first round of badges this week, and I have some ideas for who should get them. But I want your help: If there?s a commenter other than yourself who you consider particularly thoughtful or excellent, nominate him or her in the comments to this post. I?ll go through it and take the nominations into consideration when awarding badges. By week?s end, I hope to have awarded about 10.

Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=f751b0712e78cdcbf8b882e9aa996df1

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