Comments are back!

That's right, comments are back everybody! And we didn't leave you hanging for no good reason. We hope that week off of the comments will prevent those silly trolls and spammers from comin' round anymore. But since we know it won't, we have some new anti-spam systems on the backend, and a new feature for you guys to use: comment reporting.

Next to everybody's comment, you'll see a little exclamation point. Click that, and the comment will be immediately reported to our staff. Please, only report offensive posts, or spam! We don't like spending our days at work looking at a bunch of falsely reported comments.

We've also made a couple of changes: no more numbering comments (they just got way too confusing), and no more stars (we never turned 'em on anyway). However, the big news here is that Engadget is getting an entirely new comment system in a few weeks, so be on the lookout. We're expecting to finally provide persistent user profiles, advanced moderation, and other neat stuff we should have had, like, forever years ago. Thanks for your patience everybody, and happy commenting!

[Big ups to Gavin in our tech team!]

[Paul Miller @ Jun 7th 2006 12:21PM]

Yay for comments!

[Brian @ Jun 7th 2006 12:23PM]

yowza.

[John from Buffalo @ Jun 7th 2006 12:24PM]

Digg(.com) it.

[Tush @ Jun 7th 2006 12:26PM]

To "Paul Miller":

God, are you just a comments-fanboy? I hate comments-fanboys, HOLY WAR!

PS: Thanks Engadget for bring back comments.

[Ultim8fury @ Jun 7th 2006 12:27PM]

Good job. It was kinda dead without the comments.

[Nick Ellis @ Jun 7th 2006 12:27PM]

Welcome back!

[havanahjoe @ Jun 7th 2006 12:27PM]

Nice! Great to see the comments back online.

[funkycoldm3dina @ Jun 7th 2006 12:27PM]

i am so glad to have this portion back! I agree with controlling all the expletives and abuse of the forms. Lets hope that people will respect the forums. i hope that i am one of the first guys to get my post in!

[Justin @ Jun 7th 2006 12:29PM]

Great Job! I was kinda bored not seeing comments. One suggestion i have is maybe make the line between comments more visible? I can see it, but barely.

[Craig @ Jun 7th 2006 12:29PM]

Yay!!! Comments are back!!!

[Henry @ Jun 7th 2006 12:30PM]

I know, I always looked forward to reading the comments and the inevitable "I for one welcome our new ______ overlords" snowclone.

[LongshotX @ Jun 7th 2006 12:34PM]

Good now if only joystiq would follow suit.

[walkin @ Jun 7th 2006 12:34PM]

And there was much rejoicing.

[Arnold @ Jun 7th 2006 12:35PM]

i love reading comments :)

[Cliff @ Jun 7th 2006 12:37PM]

Some people contribute witty comments -- glad I can start seeing them again.

[Liam @ Jun 7th 2006 12:37PM]

glad to see them back!

[Phil @ Jun 7th 2006 12:38PM]

Hey I know numbering was confusing because the numbers didn't stay the same for particular messages, but you should show some kind of unique ID for posts so that people responding to a specific post can have something at the top of the message like "Response to Post 15463". The unique ID should be unique only within the current topic so you don't have to have excessively long post ID's.

[james @ Jun 7th 2006 12:38PM]

Snowclones for everyone!!

[alek @ Jun 7th 2006 12:38PM]

yay. the comments were always a great time-killer. my favorite part of the site (almost). i hope the new comment system is going to be like slashdots, i like being able to see the ratings of comments.

[Ryan @ Jun 7th 2006 12:39PM]

Here's to the new comments system! Hopefully no more going to my email everytime I comment.

[Amac_of_the_Clones @ Jun 7th 2006 12:40PM]

having comments again is like going back to a game or movie vs watching it alone at home. Same content, more social interaction.

[Rohit Kapur @ Jun 7th 2006 12:42PM]

Woot woot! Comments, ye are much welcome. :-)

[Brian @ Jun 7th 2006 12:43PM]

Woohoo! Finally, I can comment on all those old stories!

[Handsome Jon @ Jun 7th 2006 12:44PM]

Thank God! Something to read at work...

[mreeve @ Jun 7th 2006 12:48PM]

I personally liked no user profiles. I don't comment very often and liked the fact that I didn't have to create a user account on this site.

Also, I noticed that the comment system doesn't allow for email addresses such as: [e-mail] (which is a valid email address)

[Alan @ Jun 7th 2006 12:49PM]

Does that mean the next podcast is around the corner too?

[neo-fight.tv @ Jun 7th 2006 12:49PM]

Great to have the comments back!

[Pete Avila @ Jun 7th 2006 12:55PM]

w00t w00t for comments!!!! now the public can hear me speak my mind..

[Luis Antonio @ Jun 7th 2006 12:56PM]

was getting kinda boring..

[Pal @ Jun 7th 2006 1:02PM]

Hopefully this won't turn the trolls/spammers into mass exclamation mark clickers that fill up your inboxes!

Good times, comments!

[tc @ Jun 7th 2006 1:04PM]

finally

[Akshat @ Jun 7th 2006 1:06PM]

Like everyone said its great to have comments back, but as Phil mentioned numbers were helpful in responding to someone else's comments, so I hope you guys figure out an easy way to still do that.

[Amsterman @ Jun 7th 2006 1:06PM]

I've got a lot of comments to do since last week lol.

[Jon @ Jun 7th 2006 1:07PM]

No this isnt spam, but you've been doug!
http://digg.com/technology/engadget_comments_finally_working.

[Jboy001 @ Jun 7th 2006 1:08PM]

as long as the comments are not made invite only like another group of gadget and gaming blog sites *cough gizmodo, kotaku cough*

it would be nice to have a profile and a way to track responses to posts without digging through the archives

[Emceay @ Jun 7th 2006 1:10PM]

Thanks Gavin! You rock.

[Raikage @ Jun 7th 2006 1:19PM]

.....but I liked stars...they are...shiny...and...stuff
P.S. Nice to have you back Engadget...comments are where the heart is...

The Raikage

[Paul @ Jun 7th 2006 1:19PM]

Sweet, I had been going crazy without the comments to read, sometimes you find some really interesting stuff in here.

[haythem @ Jun 7th 2006 1:23PM]

engadget really isn't the same without comments....feels naked.....glad they're back

[Sredlums @ Jun 7th 2006 1:25PM]

I don't know.
So if I comment about the comments and someone comments on my comment, I can comment on him commenting my commenting on you enabling commenting again.
Bit too confusing...

So: no comment.

[oshean @ Jun 7th 2006 1:28PM]

Yes! Thanks guys!

[Dignan17 @ Jun 7th 2006 1:33PM]

Excellent! And I'm happy there are no more numbers. It would always be confusing when someone would say "to #4", and then someone who posted before #4 but took longer to confirm their post would confirm and think the person was replying to them.

It was all too confusing, like my explanation.

And hooray for persistent user profiles. Great job you guys and I look forward to the NEW new system.

[bazza @ Jun 7th 2006 1:39PM]

SIGH! just when i was enjoying the zealot free engadget. ah well!

[james @ Jun 7th 2006 1:49PM]

Actually, I LIKED the numbers... I just wished that the comments would list in the order that they were confirmed - not in the order they were submitted. We've still got that problem, but no way to reference specific comments without "quoting them".

[shon @ Jun 7th 2006 1:49PM]

cool. i missed being able to put in my 2 cents, and read others. good work gentlemen (and ladies if any.. haha)

[Paqza @ Jun 7th 2006 1:53PM]

Am I the only one who discovered that Engadget is far less useful without the comments? The comments tap into the collective knowledge, correcting errors or elaborating, or even allowing the connection to related avenues. A blog without the comments is much weaker, no? I noticed myself visiting Engadget far less often while also doubting the validity of articles after the comments were turned off because they essentially removed a form of bio-error checking.

[Dave Alton @ Jun 7th 2006 1:54PM]

I am not sure but it sounds like people like the comments. Glad they are back too!

Dave

[Ectoplasm @ Jun 7th 2006 1:56PM]

Nice job! I never liked the star system, especially if you ever had a star removed because the blogger didn't agree with your comment. I always thought that was a bit harsh and not conducive to maintaining happy customers and good karma. Instead, I've always thought Yahoo had the best system, where end users can 'recommend' replies if they thought you made a great comment. The idea of moderators rating replies on their stories, just seemed a bit odd to me, especially if you happened to disagree with the article.

But anyway, I'm really glad to see comments back on, and I hope the new features work out so we don't have to loose comments again. Also, hopefully, this'll spread to other weblog sites.

[Chip Thomas @ Jun 7th 2006 1:57PM]

A new comments system... I'm intrigued.

[hesh @ Jun 7th 2006 1:57PM]

I've always hated having to confirm a comment! What's up with that silliness?

And I hope you update Engadget Mobile as well!

Confirming sucks it!

p.s. - I liked the numbers too.