I read Martin Belam’s post on the BBC’s recent blogging changes, which include imposing a limit on comment length (to a somewhat terse, Twitter–like 400).

I actually thought this may be a good idea for sites that get hundreds of comments, and not only because admins would be spared the presumably onerous task of moderating tens of thousands of words.

A character limit could, in theory, reduce ad hominem attacks; after all, if you only have a handful of words in which to make your point you’re less likely to waste them on slagging off another commentator. On the other hand, if you’re simply intent on slagging people off, no character limit’s going to stop you.

Shorter comments may also help new readers make sense of a long commentary. Take this example of a popular post from The Guardian’s site. Remove the essay like replies and it becomes less daunting. But only to a certain degree — there’s still a lot of scrolling to be done.

Other ways of making large comments sections more readable

Comments are, in my opinion, a problem on popular sites. ‘Luckily’ it’s not something I have to deal with: I get a handful here and moderate a LinkedIn group where discussions tend to attract a manageable 20–40 contributions.

Newspaper sites are different. I’ve yet to find one that provides a way of making sense of several hundred comments — most of which reiterate a handful of arguments (in a somewhat argumentative, puerile tone). A few changes would make the commentary more readable:

• allow commentators to reply to each other. This should naturally group comments around the most popular and representative
• make it really easy to rate comments. While The Guardian does boast this feature, it’s not particularly visible — a graphic would help — and doesn’t affect how comments are displayed. The most popular (or unpopular, for that matter) comments could be displayed at the top, and new commentators could be prompted to respond to a limited number of comments
• offer different ways to respond to the article itself, from a simple thumbs up/down to a poll based on the article’s content
• make commentators use their real names. This will make some commentators think a bit more, and certainly reduce the number of aggressive comments. The most effective way of doing this is through using a third party, such as Facebook, Twitter or Google (although I have to say I find this a royal PITA myself – I’d be interested to hear about alternative methods).

Of course, small, largely unread blogs are at an advantage when it comes to managing comments; we have the luxury of being able to publish flat lists that are relatively easy to interpret. High traffic sites use what’s essentially the same commenting system; perhaps it needs a complete rethink.