My question was inspired by my own experience today after posting an article about the "strategic lessons of hacking" by Umair Haque (Harvard/Bubblegeneration) and Fred Wilson's post [also of today], "Web Discussions: Leaving the Instigator Out."<p>We all know that the convo that happens here is discrete from what happens on the actual source. In lieu of the i/o plumbing that Disqus, et al, are forging, isn't there some kind of social contract that commentators should be a party to?<p>As Fred said, "[The author's] reward is the comments it generates. That's how bloggers get paid."<p>I think this is <i>especially</i> true if there's serious criticism. I'm not sure how I feel about someone posting a comment that flies here, but would be regarded as a flame in context (as happened on my submission http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=203609 )<p>(Ironically, I was downmodded after responding flippantly to the in-context flame)<p>Any thoughts?<p>(Links: my post http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=203400 // Fred's post http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2008/05/web-discussions.html