Among journalists everywhere, there’s an Agonizing Reappraisal going on over permitting readers to mouth back in comments sections with facts and logic. Why do we go to to all the trouble of telling you what to believe, when we also let you give us backtalk?

This may help explain why there hasn’t been much progress lately in comment section software. But Ron Unz, editor-in-chief of the Unz Review, likes arguments. So he’s been programming new functionality into the comments sections here.

He debuted some new features yesterday, and you gave us a lot of valuable feedback in 75 comments.

So today Ron has already written new code implementing some of your suggestions he liked.

It’s kind of like if you write a letter to Steve Forbes telling him how to fix up his magazine and the next day your copy of Forbes arrives with changes the boss man made overnight.

For example, yesterday Ron provided a new option to show only the comments in one particular thread of a back and forth argument. Today, you can also do the reverse and choose to not show all the comments in a thread you’re not interested in.

Of course, Ron, as I mentioned, likes strong opinions, and that includes his own opinions. So, keep in mind that not all of you who offered suggestions on changes will find your ideas implemented, at least not so far.

But we very much appreciate the suggestions, and please keep them coming. We’ve got Ron’s attention at present, and when he focuses on something like this, it tends to get accomplished fast. But he also has a lot of other projects he could be focusing upon, so this is a good time to get your suggestions in before he turns to something else.

I’m particularly interested in ideas for improving fit and finish to make the site more elegant as well as powerful.

For example, neither Ron nor I are terribly adept with Twitter, so suggestions for improving the Comments -> Twitter interface would be valuable.

Another question would be: what else besides Twitter should be supported for sharing good comments? Email? Facebook? Reddit? What’s dying out and isn’t worth the clutter?