DEBATE

Since reading "Your wish has come true", I have considered the new ability to post comments without registering a potential revolutionary one.

I thought the ease of commenting could bring about substantial changes to the way that the site is used in the future. After seeing a couple of comments on one of my recreant photo-essays, I realized that the future has arrived and things have changed already.

A simple calculation revealed that since the publication of the article mentioned above only 14% of posted articles managed to remain immune to comments (all articles till 18th Sep were included in this calculation). Let’s not talk statistics, but at the first glance an increase in the number of articles commented on is apparent.

The comments posted on some of the articles are very interesting. The twists and turns (even u-turns!) in the topic of discussion moving from one comment to the next are dramatic, unpredictable and sometimes a joy to see. Reading comments can now be even more fascinating than the original article and indeed they can add fresh perspectives or give credibility to the topic of discussion.

However, anonymous commenting coupled with the heterogeneous mix of the site contributors means that a clash (head on) is inevitable. This collision is not likely to be preventable, and it could go in two ways. It can either be fun and even educational, or painful and disastrous to watch.

In the worse scenario more introvert contributors would be pushed off the site altogether. On the other hand, we might get a chance to practice the art of debating, something that traditionally hasn’t been encouraged. So, does anonymous commenting work for this site? Only time can tell, but thank you Iranian.com for the opportunity to experience it.