I've definitely soured on the idea of having threaded discussion in blogs. Or unmoderated discussion, for that matter. On the other hand, I think threaded discussion is great on sites like Hacker News which are divorced from the original content.
If I were to create a new blog in this day and age, I would only permit pre-moderated flat discussion on my blog, so I could publish interesting feedback and reactions - like an inline "Letters to the Editor" section. That way you give readers an effective way to "react" to the post on the page without opening yourself up to comment-to-comment discussion, spam, trolling and flame wars.
Knowing that the comment won't be published unless it is insightful will lead to fewer comments, but those who do comment will probably put extra effort into making the comment worthy of being seen. And really, the point of a blog post is the post itself, not the comments. Hacker news, in my opinion, is a way better format for real discussion sparked by a post, rather than reactions meant for the author of it.
If I were to create a new blog in this day and age, I would only permit pre-moderated flat discussion on my blog, so I could publish interesting feedback and reactions - like an inline "Letters to the Editor" section. That way you give readers an effective way to "react" to the post on the page without opening yourself up to comment-to-comment discussion, spam, trolling and flame wars.
Knowing that the comment won't be published unless it is insightful will lead to fewer comments, but those who do comment will probably put extra effort into making the comment worthy of being seen. And really, the point of a blog post is the post itself, not the comments. Hacker news, in my opinion, is a way better format for real discussion sparked by a post, rather than reactions meant for the author of it.