LA Weekly Commenting System Gets An Upgrade

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One of the fun things about blog posts is that you can comment on them pretty much instantly, posting your anonymous (or not) 2 cents worth for everyone to read as soon as you finish typing. Unlike the old days, when you just threw your food at the television screen. To further encourage this sort of behavior, the Weekly has now upgraded its somewhat aggravating commenting system. So now it's just a bit more high tech than the food-at-the-screen thing.

Thanks to Disqus -- the same system used by CNN.com, TechCrunch and FoxNews.com (and no, your comments will not go through Glenn Beck, sorry) -- you will now have the following features for your feedback:

Instant gratification: Comments go live as soon as you hit send, which means bantering back and forth on a story's points or merits will be more like an online chat and less like waiting for your comment to be approved by an archaic spam filter. Disqus also lets you comment via your smartphone. Not while driving, please.

Threaded conversations and gold stars: No more confusion over who you're responding to. In addition to commenting on a post, you can comment on other readers' comments, inline. You'll also be able to share your clever statements on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites, and "like" comments of others.

Get comments via e-mail: You can subscribe to comments on any blog post and also be notified when someone replies to your comments, instantly, via e-mail. You may well never get any real work done again.

Commenter profiles: Be as anonymous or as open as you want to be. Disqus allows you to create a profile for yourself, or log in through Facebook or other sites you already use. Profiles also allow you be a part of various Disqus communities.

So try it out and see what you think. And yeah, we look forward to your comments.