and busy or high-profile websites: High volume flow. This is a problem with weblogs in general. Everyone has been touting them as the next generation in online community, which is true, but not because of the comments sections, though ironically this is the feature that most resembles traditional online communities such as the Well or Cafe Utne. The weblog world is community-like because of the give-and-take between and among “peer” weblogs via links-and-commentary posts, and it is in that respect that the weblog world is and encourages online community. The existence or not of the ability to comment has little to do, in my opinion, with the community-ness of weblogs.

The solution to the problem is simple and has existed for much longer than weblogs have existed: old-school online communities such as those mentioned above, with mandatory registration, active, consistent moderation, and persistent membership over time such that individuals have a social motivation to behave.