Good morning, kids. Gawker's brand new commenting system debuts today. You'll notice some changes down below, and if you were a starred commenter in the old format, you'll notice that those little yellow stars are gone, too.

Briefly, here are a few adjustments you should be aware of:

  • After you've started a discussion, you'll see "accept/dismiss" buttons next to the replies to your original comment. This is your power — if you so choose, you can dismiss comments irrelevant to the discussion, and accept those that build off of it. You'll see these replies in your personal Inbox.
  • You'll notice a light gray timestamp next to each comment. If you click on it, you'll see a permalink page for that specific comment "branch" — the comment in its precise discussion context. This allows you to isolate both the conversations you're a part of and the conversations you find most interesting for easy sharing. Try it out.
  • There are three tabs in the comments section: Featured Discussions, Latest, and Inbox. "Featured Discussions" contains the best conversations; "Latest" offers a running feed of the most recent contributions; and "Inbox" has your personal comment notifications. Messages here are addressed to you, and you can Reply back from your inbox. You can choose to Accept a message if you like it and want to preserve the exchange. You can Dismiss it if it's junk. These exchanges are public and your actions will determine how a discussion is displayed. In other words, we're depending on you to control the conversation.

Try it out, and let us know if you're having any problems.