MLive is Abolishing Its Comments Section (Probably to Save Money)

Comments on articles posted at MLive.com will soon be a thing of the past, according to the website.

As of Thursday (2/20) readers will no longer have the ability to make comments at the end of stories. However, the ability to comment on the site's Facebook page will remain intact.

A lack of participation is the reason cited for the change. MLive claims that out of 50 million nationwide users each month, roughly 2,340 people make about 60% of the comments that are submitted.

But the article goes on to say that policing the comments section of its website is an "around the clock" chore that we assume has become too costly.

"...our moderators (and a vendor our company hires) stay busy around the clock policing the conversations, addressing flagged comments and even going so far as to ban some users."

The site says it will direct resources (formerly allocated to policing the comments section) into creating more news content.

Disabling comments is nothing new to the online publisher. MLive recently abolished comments from certain editorials, a practice it claims is working.

In a nutshell, that’s a big reason MLive is moving on from comments: So we can slow down, tone it down, and have more meaningful conversations with everyone – not just the loudest and most frequent voices.

Ironically, if you have thoughts on this change, you can tell us what you think in the comments section of this website.