[OceanSunfish]

This is tangential, but I wonder if the problem with "bot commenting" isn't inherent to forum-style discussion. When our only channel for analysis/criticism is ephemeral comment sections, we lose the ability to compare related discussions of a topic over time, or to rectify disagreements that occur across several threads, or even across different sub-trees of discussion.

Compared to a wiki-style website, where all angles of the argument can be collected into one place to make a cohesive comparative overview; as forum-users, we are left stranded in noisy content, and we rely on making heuristic judgements based on popularity of certain opinions and stubbornness of certain commenters. Bots make easy work of exploiting these flawed heuristics.

[OGWhales]

I agree. Sites like Reddit, with visible comment voting, can quickly turn certain communities into echo chambers. Disagreement with the "hive mind" can be punishing, discouraging debate and encouraging the melding of opinions. Secondly, seeing how others voted influences others to vote the same, causing a snowball effect. I prefer hidden vote count and the inability to downvote someone. I believe this makes an important difference when a reader is determining their opinion about comments, even if the comments are still organized by highest vote.

All media has its flaws, and I still prefer to check forums for the greatest diversity of opinions. Strangely, I have noticed an unintuitive aspect of forums: smaller forums appear to have a greater diversity in opinion than larger ones.

[forgetfulusr]

I agree with the vote counting and I am curious, is there a forum which only shows comments after you have made a comment on the article itself? As long as empty comments and "this" aren't allowed, it can be a good filter for on topic, more organic discussion.