While we might think of it as an integral part of the internet era, the truth is that a “comments section” has existed for almost half a millennium. When Martin Luthor nailed his ninety-five theses to a door, he was simply following in the footsteps of other German academics, who would share their thoughts through, effectively, bits of parchment put up in public areas.
However, it’s pretty clear that this method, while effective, considering the spread of Protestantism, lacked any ability to reply effectively. Outside of letters that readers might send editors, most “public” discussions would be entirely verbal up until 1998, when the online diary site “Open Diary” added a comments section.
The same year, The Rocky Mountain News added the ability of readers to comment on news stories. Interestingly, The Rocky Mountain News was also the first US newspaper to feature an advice column, where readers could get suggestions for their questions and conundrums. Sadly, this innovative paper closed down in 2008.
Since the early 2000s, comment sections have practically crept up everywhere. From breaking news stories to the recipe for a sweet potato pie and everything in between, we are generally free to share our thoughts, criticisms, and suggestions with the entire world. Of course, this doesn’t mean that our thoughts, criticisms, and suggestions should actually be seen, but that’s a whole different matter.
Indeed, comment sections are so common that the lack of one is what actually stands out. If you open a YouTube video and notice that the comments are locked, your first thought generally is “What on God’s green Earth happened here?” In the particular case of YouTube, it’s often a result of certain comments leading to a video’s demonetization.
Some famous cases of entire publications limiting comments include Vice, which shut the feature down in 2016. In a public statement, they argued that "we had to ban countless commenters over the years for threatening our writers and subjects, doxxing private citizens, and engaging in hate speech against pretty much every group imaginable."
That same year (surprise, surprise,) NPR also made the decision to remove a comments section from its articles. They believed that it was becoming too difficult to moderate comments, while many people were simply being disrespectful, arguing in bad faith, and generally turning a public forum into an online brawl.
