Content Management Matters ™

User comments seem to be a hot topic as of late. Much of it related to why newspapers should either eliminate or enhance them.

In a recent article on Gawker.com, it was strongly suggested that comments should be rid of altogether, citing that "newspapers have more important things to do than worry about comments" and that blogs are "not equipped to regularly break the news."

They don't think that the comments a published story garners adds anything to the content, nor do they help to engage a discussion among readers. Though they do find value in the blogs hosted by reporters, they argue that the comments posted by users do nothing more than expose the ignorance of readers and had they been submitted as letters to the editor, they would never been published in the first place.

An interesting point of view for a media site dedicated to commenting on the behaviors of others. And a perspective with which Editor & Publisher differs.

The rumors are true: comment box-modding is now an industry.

JS-Kit has just released a new Comments widget that boasts lots of important features but is disturbingly easy to implement and use. (Seriously. Try it here.)

At no cost and with no advertising, users of JS-Kit Comments can:

• Monitor threads
• Create RSS data feeds to track comments. This also empowers search engines to index them
• Sort comments based on name, date and "karma" (based on user votes)

The feature doesn't cause laggage and comments materialize instantly, even without the whole-page twitch that typically happens when a site is over-AJAXed.

After trying out Comments we started checking out JS-Kit's other widgets. They include, Ratings, Top Rated and Polls -- all sound CRM tools with a professional veneer. Just pop the HTML into your site.

It's amateur-easy.

We've done a lot of talking about the democratic benefits of the 'net. Because it's so easy to become a web publisher, everybody's got a soapbox, right?

But what can web two-dot-oh do for opinionated people who don't blog and have no intention to start?

coComment may answer that question.

Now even citizen bloggers can get all Web 2.0'ed out. MT-Hacks, a resource for all your eyebrow-raising Movable Type plugin needs, has just launched an AJAX-powered comments system. It is called Ajax Comments.

Conversation is making a comeback in a big way. While this doesn't mean more people are getting cozy over coffee, it does mean the tech-savvy are demanding faster and faster ways to get their thoughts out to both relevant audiences and those less so.

With Blog Flux's new Commentful, one-liners and whole discourses left on comments pages can be brought to an owner's attention in real-time, increasing rates of response so it's almost like having a real discussion -- almost.