[jere]

I think you're right. A little surprised about Mastodon because I've only heard that from people I follow on twitter who tend to not be crazy, but I guess it makes sense.

I have an idea for an app whose primary motivation is offering a comment section for websites that don't normally have comments or have them disabled (yes, this idea is old as dirt and has been tried many times).

The part I'm really struggling with is how one would market such an app without targeting free speech absolutists and nutters, despite it being really useful for everyone. It seems like the moment you start highlighting free speech as a feature you become a magnet for the absolute worst kind of people.

[mumblemumble]

This is the one thing that I still miss from Google Reader. It got discussing articles right. Specifically, what it got right is that you discuss them with a small group of direct acquaintances.

I think that any attempt to produce something that works like the comments section of a newspaper website will invariably produce something that works like the comments section of a newspaper website.

Yes, I am aware of the irony of saying this in the comments section of a website called Hacker News.

[manicdee]

So don’t highlight free speech as a feature since you clearly do not understand the market for whom that feature is important (ie: free speech absolutists and conspiracy theorists).

What the people who actually value free speech want is sensible, non-political moderation where the free speech absolutists and nutters are muzzled but the minorities complaining about oppression are not.

[Rumudiez]

> an app whose primary motivation is offering a comment section for websites that don't normally have comments

Disqus has done this to a fairly wide extent. They allow site maintainers to moderate comments IIRC.

[jaredsohn]

I think this is more about something like running a chrome extension to have comments without the site owner's involvement.

https://www.google.com/search?q=chrome+extension+comments+fo...