ignore the code - Comments: Size Does Matter

Interesting article looking at some non-scientific correlations between comment size and quality.

An even more interesting relationship, in my opinion, is that between the site architecture and site culture. For example, sorting comments chronologically so that the first posted appears at the top makes logical sense, but leads inevitably to worthless “first post!” comments. Much better is a system with voting so that the hottest/highest rated comments are at the top. Another factor that makes for poor comments is lack of persistent identity. It is not going out on a limb to say that 4chan is the worst site on the internet in part because its Anon culture encourages anti-social meme hoarding. One thing that makes a site’s comment section better is clearly nested replies, or failing that, a good system for block quoting other posters.

Of course, the early culture is always a key factor and one of the largest determinants of site quality, but technological factors aren’t to be neglected either.