How can commenting systems be improved?

Well... I really had to work at it to sign up for these comments, it was very time consuming but worth it I think.

My personal favorite commenting system is the post now, authenticate later method by which you are allowed to post, but a notice or validation link is sent to your email address to verify after the comment has been posted.

It makes it alot more seamless. I think it all boils down to the website in question.

I try to avoid websites which are closed off with rel=nofollow links, I might post once or twice but I make a note not to join that community for any extended period of time. The only "commenting" system being the exception is Twitter if you are willing to allow it be called a commenting system.

Disqus is a neat idea in theory for users who get the added benefit of tracking comments across many commenting areas, but there seem to be competitors already popping up to defeat that benefit. For site owners it has the negative effect of storing content in areas which have no guarantee of existing years down the road, so if it fads, you can forget about archiving right? I could be wrong, someone might have figured out a solution. I don't use Disqus personally.

There is the OpenID which I believe might be relevant to this website as it makes use of the http://domain.com/membername format. Never tried it, just mentioning it.

In a perfect world, I would think the browser manufacturers should get their act together and design a standardized authentication system, one which could eventually expand to include things like biometrics and such. Cookies, only on steroids. Opt-in of course to allow for anonymity. Jmo...

I think in Japan they have the RFID chips in mobile rolling out, not sure if it's in use or accepted in North America yet. Not sure if that could ever extend to an authentication system for memberships or comments.

I must say the functionality of the posting system at this website is very usabale, the ability to edit comments is fairly excellent.

Hope that helps...

I recently wrote a post on The Next Web looking specifically at this question. The first of my points was that I shouldn't need to register to comment (low barriers to entry) and, amusingly, O'Reilly made me register to post this one! If it hadn't been about the topic, I wouldn't have bothered, and that's the point really.

I also wrote about authenticating using existing web services, encouraging conversation, using gravatar, sharing comments broadly, filtering spam and considering using the existing web service.

Here's a link to the post Are you chasing your blog audience away?

This came in via @sdavy on Twitter: "It would be great to have tagging integrated"

Totally agree. Tagging and comments are made for each other.

Registration is tricky. It creates obstacles -- no doubt about that -- but if done well it also limits some of the nonsense that comes with anonymity.

I used to be a die-hard, let-everyone-say-what-they-want evangelist. But I've changed my tune. I still believe in comments and I think web-based discussions are fantastic, but allowing people to take shots at each other while obscured by anonymity just doesn't work. That's one thing I really appreciate about Facebook: to get the most out of the service, you need to use your real identity.

That said, the "post now, authenticate later" David discusses is a great way to minimize registration friction.