What's a threaded comment?
Instead of a stacked list of one-off replies, you'll be able to respond to and have your response appear directly below another commenters remarks. We're told this makes the whole thing read more like a "conversation," something we vaguely remember before we started working on the internet.

The best part? You won't have to scroll up to root out someone's smart-ass comment to an earlier smart-ass comment and you won't have to scroll all the way to the bottom to reply to another commenter.

How do I respond to a comment?
Simply click on the reply arrow and start pounding away at the keyboard.

Are threads displayed in chronological order?
Well sort of. Each conversation will be displayed in chronological order, but organization of those conversations overall will be displayed based on popularity. The most popular conversations will float to the top. The most recent comment that has no replies will appear on top for 15 minutes before being filtered down. If a more active conversation receives a reply within those 15 minutes, that conversation will overtake the stand-alone comment.

What's this little heart next to a commenter's name? And, hey, where'd the plus and minus go?!
You used to need to tick the plus or minus button to befriend or de-friend another commenter. Now you just tick the little heart button. It's sweeter this way.

What's up with that star icon? Are these commenters invincible?
Starred commenters were readers who have 25 or more followers or were designated as stars by an admin. With the introduction of threaded comments, the number of followers required to attain star is increasing to 40. There is no level cap.

I'm frightened of change. Is there a way to view comments the "old-fashioned" way?
Yes! You can switch to the old style comments layout by clicking the "classic view" link in the comments bar at the top of the threads.

Good vs. Bad Comments
Read carefully before you comment. Definitely read beyond the headline before you comment. If you're new to the notion of offering your anonymous opinion via the internet, here are a few guidelines for cranking out grade-A comments.

Characteristics of a good comment:
+ Insight, additional information and helpful corrections
+ Intelligent critique
+ Wit, humor and amusing personal anecdotes
+ Calm, courteous, reasoned disagreement, either with the opinions/facts presented in a post itself or with other commenters

Characteristics of a bad comment:
- Attacks on other commenters or Kotaku editors - we don't mind the criticism, but if you are going to be a dick about it, we have no qualms over banning you and later belittling you via e-mail.
- Trolling
- Excessive vulgarity, including racist, sexist or homophobic attacks
- Self-promotion
- Irrelevance - "I don't know who this person is" or "First!"
- Assumption/speculation over an editor’s motivations - “This post was only put up in order to garner [editor name] pageviews” or "This is not news!"
- Thread hijacking

Disemvoweling or "Wht hppnd t my cmmnt?"
One of the comment admins found your response to be either lame or just plain stupid enough to not warrant a ban, but to make it unreadable. We've removed the vowels from your post to make it nigh unreadable. Consider it a warning, or in some cases, evidence for your ban.

Being banned.
We reserve the right to ban for any reason. We do not owe banned commenters an explanation, although we may give one if we feel like it. As always, banned commenters can re-apply for commenting privileges after 2 weeks.

Wondering how not to get banned? Be sure to read Lifehacker's commenting guide.

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My suggestion was that we create an opposite to that fancy star you get for being an exceptionally insightful commenter. Maybe a grey dunce hat or an exclamation point. Well, neither have come to fruition (yet). But I still have hopes.

Yesterday afternoon there was a knock at the front gate of Kotaku Tower. When I opened the doors I discovered a small box sitting on the splintering doorstep. Inside, a straight razor. And not just any straight razor, but a straight razor of disemvoweling. With a flick of the wrist troublesome commenters have all of the vowels of a post sliced free. Consider it a warning, because there aren't too many people who can survive more than one dance with the razor.

How Not To Get Banned: A Primer [Kotaku]

We've been running this contest throughout the past month or so, so I think it's about time to announce who the new king of comments will be.

If you remember we had narrowed down the list to these five:

EnigmaNemesis
TheIrishNinja
Spoony Bard
PapaBear434
DaiMacculate

Each of these commenters are daily readers, heavy commenters, people who spend an inordinate amount of time reading our stories and calling us on our bullshit and for that we love them. But unfortunately, we could only pick one for the latest six-month rotation as Commenting Czar, a person who will be giving the mighty banhammer, a tool which has both the ability to strike down lesser tools and to give life to once bannified accounts. The new czar will also earn $200 a month for their hard work.

Hit the jump for the name.

Without further ado I give you your new Czar: Spoony Bard

To everyone else I just want to remind you that this job lasts six months so please check back in with me in December or January because only you can prevent trolls. And of course we're always looking for strong, inquisitive writers. Thanks again for everyone's effort.

It's disheartening to think that it has come to this, that unless we're talking about the relatively safe topics of consoles and their direct by-products there can't be intelligent discourse on Kotaku. And I don't understand how we've arrived here.

Commenting on this site has a short and interesting history. It wasn't allowed for more than a year and when it did come, after much pleading on my part, it came in the form of an invitation. You were invited to come into the site. This wasn't because we didn't want dissenters on the site, it was because we didn't want trolls here, inside with us. Because whether you believe me or not, commenters are as much a part of making Kotaku, what it is, as it's writers are, perhaps even more a part of that process.

Over time we opened the door more, allowing anyone to apply to be a commenter, something that I hoped would bring a wealth of new and interesting opinion into the site. But what it seems to have done is created not a chorus of thought and reason, but a mob mentality, a desire to post first, to speak loudest and to rarely read through the entire article or think about the topic at hand. It's created a cacophony of stupidity that drowns out our many well-reasoned readers and dilutes their intelligent discourse.

Race is a big issue. It's an issue that's right up there with religion and politics. People get angry, I get that, and of course you have the right to get angry. But what you don't have the right to do is to turn off your brain and turn up your mouth.

If you disagree with someone then disagree, but don't resort to calling names, don't use caps, don't generalize. Dissent with smart, thoughtful comments, create a dialog or go somewhere else, because frankly, you're embarrassing me.

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No more will we waste your time by detailing the movements of game company CEOs, revealing early the secrets of consoles and developers alike, instead we will work to push Game Caking to the frosty heights it so richly deserves.

Expect in the weeks, months, years to come detailed secrets on the people behind the cakes you know and love, tips on how to prepare your own Game Cakes and nuanced features on the inner machinations of some of bakings greatest.

As always we will strive to stay in front of the pack, covering the game cake industry as both an outsider. Some might argue that all Game Cakes need is a cold glass of milk, but we at Kaketaku knows it needs some hard-nosed journalism.... too.

Kaketaku

Galactic Multi-Tap launches this Friday.

This year I was surprised to find that (Denver) Westword's 25th Annual Best of edition included a special category just for Kotaku, complimenting both video games and our site in the entry:

Best Worldwide Resource for Video Games (2008)
www.kotaku.com
Video games are quickly ascending to a place of cultural dominance, joining movies and music in terms of earning power and cultural cachet. One of the biggest and best websites covering this transformation is Denver-based www.kotaku.com, which includes live coverage of key events, such as the recent Game Developers Conference, and original features on nearly every important thing in gaming. Managing editor Brian Crecente, a longtime veteran of the Rocky Mountain News, runs the megablog, continuing a tradition of delivering top-notch coverage.

Woo-hoo time to break out the cake and champagne. OK, maybe just Twinkies and punch.

Best Worldwide Resource for Video Games (2008) [Westword]

You may have already noticed the stars that have begun appearing next to posts by certain commenters. This is a way for readers to quickly scan the comments on a page and stop at comments that are likely to be of high quality. Commenters get star status when they have a large number of followers. We can also reward especially elucidating commenters with a gold star. It's so elementary school, I love it!

Now we need to come out with the opposite of a star. Oh right we already have that, it's called the ban hammer.

If you're interested in giving up your weekends for a chance to run things at Kotaku Towers when almost no other writers are around, then look no further. We're looking for a solid writer who also has excellent news judgment and a love of the video game bizarre.

If you're genuinely interested, have the time, the patience and the skill, then drop me an email with a run down of your experience, some writing samples and a convincing argument why I should hire you. Keep in mind that I'll probably be getting a lot of these and I'm extraordinarily picky, so you better make it good.

:)

Keeping up for some can be quite a drag. So we created the day and night notes. Not only does this allow Ash and I to communicate with one another, but it gives us both a chance to point out some of the best stories of our shift.

But that still might not be what you're looking for. So here's another solution, the master list to all of our tagged RSS feeds. That's right every single tag we use on the site, from 1080p to Zune, has its one RSS feed. Go hog wild, but don't come complaining to me when you miss a feature on Objectivism on BioShock or us breaking the news that Peter Moore quit Microsoft.

RSS Feeds Master List [Kotaku]

Thanks Timothy!

Hello World [Wonderland]

I just found out that Kotaku has been nominated for a 2008 Bloggie for best topical weblog. Previous winners include BookSlut, PostSecret and The Leaky Cauldron. Not only has a gaming site never been nominated in this category, I believe this is the first time that a gaming site has been nominated for any Bloggie. Kinda cool.

If you're interested in voting for us hit up the site by tonight, when voting closes. I probably should have mentioned this before. And yes, we're up against cute cats.

Bloggies

See what a little persistence will get you? Over the years we've run posts where people could put up their own gamer IDs, be they for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii or PC. But the problem has always been that that post eventually, usually quickly, moves off the page and people forget about it. So I started bugging our tech folks about maybe adding it to Kotaku's increasingly robust user profiles and sure enough they did it.

Now if you want to know a fellow Kotakuite's 360 Gamertag, PS3 ID, Wii Friend Code or Steam ID you can hit their user page and check it out. To add yours to your page just sign in and click on your name at the top of the page. You'll find the boxes for that information on the right side.

Have at it and play nice.

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We are always open to ban submissions (oh yes), but next Monday the ban sensitivity on the Hammer will be turned up max. Keep a watchful eye and get those submissions ready to send out next Monday. We'll be back next Tuesday lighter, faster and better. Hope to see you on the other side.

And you all thought I had forgotten about the internships. I'd like to introduce everyone today to Tori Floyd, Kotaku's first ever intern (well, not really, but the first in recent memory. Here's Tori on Tori:

Greetings, all, from the newest (and, apparently, first) Kotaku intern! I'm a fourth-year Media Studies and Journalism student at the University of Guelph-Humber in Toronto, Ontario, and decided that working for Kotaku from home sounded much cooler than commuting to the CBC every day. Thankfully, Kotaku, agreed, and here I am. I'm currently writing my thesis essay on video games as they relate to identity development (particularly gender and sexuality), and am in the process of applying to a Master's program so I can continue studying that, and hide from the real world for another two years (or so).

In the meantime, I can generally be found playing The Sims 2 on my Mac, or an assortment of games for the Nintendo Wii and DS (currently playing Super Paper Mario, Mario Party DS, and Trauma Centre: Under the Knife). I'm notorious for not finishing games, but am willing to try everything once.

I'm looking forward to hearing from all of you!

Tori will be helping out around the tower, occasionally posting and working, I hope, on one or two long-term projects. Say "Hi" be nice.

Oh, and I am sorta still looking for another intern, one who is preferably closer to Denver than Canada, like in Denver or its surrounds. As you can probably tell from Tori's intro, the most important thing is that the intern will actually be an intern. In other words can use this experience for school credit or toward journalism experience in their future career.

You like games, so you surely like Sci-Fi right? I know I do, though my tastes tend to lean more toward the heady works of Le Guin and Miller then the likes of today's pulp sci-fi writers. (Little known fact I flunked Science Fiction in college, no lie.) That isn't to say I don't love the works of Heinlein and Howard too. But no matter which way your Philip K Dick dangles, Gawker's newest Sci-Fi-centric blog io9 has you covered. What's an io9 you ask? A rapture fucker. See proof you need to love this site. Not only is it packed with Sci-Fi goodness, it also tackles a bit of Sci-Non-Fi and throws in comic books, TV, movies, and I bet some video games, to boot.

Ride the nanowires over to io9.com today. Brain implant sold separately.

Personally, I'm going to make the effort to play more with my friends, wherever they may be. A multi-hour session of Team Fortress 2 that's due to happen as you read this with two of my best friends will make sticking to that one a bit easier. I'm also planning on spending less, buying only exactly what I plan to play and leaving nothing in the shrinkwrap. There will be more downloadable gaming in my future, more online gaming and more attention paid to indie and homebrew wares.

Let us know what you've got planned for a self-improved 2008, whether it's less fanboyism, more time with your SNES or even the shedding of that unsightly 80 pounds gained at college.

If you remember we had narrowed down the list to these five:

Witzbold
TheIrishNinja
EnigmaNemesis
Kirbytheslayer
PapaBear434

Each of these commenters are daily readers, heavy commenters, people who spend an inordinate amount of time reading our stories and calling us on our bullshit and for that we love them. But unfortunately, we could only pick one for the new position of Commenting Czar, a person who will be giving the mighty banhammer, a tool which has both the ability to strike down lesser tools and to give life to once bannified accounts. The new czar will also earn $200 a month for their hard work.

Hit the jump for the name.

Without further ado I give you your new Czar: Witzbold.

To everyone else I just want to remind you that we haven't yet decided how long this job lasts and that we also still plan on trying to hire a few more interns so don't give up hope. And of course we're always looking for strong, inquisitive writers. Thanks again for everyone's effort, drinks on Witz.

It's December 28, which means the King of Komments pre-election season has run its course and we've come up with the finalists for the big show:

Witzbold
TheIrishNinja
EnigmaNemesis
Kirbytheslayer
PapaBear434

While Witzbold is certainly the front runner in followers, that doesn't really matter at all at this stage. Now the folks in Kotaku Tower need to chat things over with the five finalists to see why they want the little-pay job and what sort of hours they would be available to moderate and such. That doesn't mean we're going to make the decision in a vacuum, since the next Komment King will be in charge of the readers I'll open up the comments now to see what you guys think. Who do you think should get the banhammer?

In the meantime the five finalists should check in with me using the email address they used to register their comment account.

Japan's most entertaining gaming journo wrote us a nice note. Find it.

Just a little heads up to those of you who read Digg and Kotaku and maybe have seen the "Kotaku steals photos" story floating around out there. Here's the full story.

The owner of a site we linked to a few months back, also using a cropped version of their pic, emailed me yesterday to let me know we had used his pictures without his permission or authorization.

I sent the info on to HQ and then headed out to spend the rest of the day setting up for our Child's Play fund raiser in Denver. Hours into the fund raiser, the emails starting rolling in pointing out the story that, I can only assume, the site owner had written, saying we had stolen his images.

This morning I got a hold of the site owner and we were able to resolve the issue. Now back to nursing my Child's Play fund raiser hang over.

Don't forget that you still have two more weeks to try and amass a commenting army to wrest control of the ban hammer from Ash and I.

The top five commenters with the most followers will be in the running to be named the new commenting czar which, along with being able to wield the ban hammer, will pay $200 a month.

Getting the break down is pretty work intensive, but last time we checked Witzbold wasn't just the leader at Kotaku, he actually has the most followers Gawker wide with 188 minions, followed by TheIrishNinja with 77, EnigmaNemesis with 75, PapaBear4 with 66 and dv8godd with 43. Remember it doesn't matter where in the top five you fall, just so you land there, and you still have plenty of time to recruit.

Full rules here.

Having long held the crown for the Gawker site with the most comments, we think it's about time we put someone in charge of keeping things moving along. Fact is, Ash and I are just plain overwhelmed with the effort required to read the comments on all of the posts, activate the deadly banhammer and welcome new commenters into the Kotaku fold. Yes, we still do that manually... one at a time.

So we're on the prowl for a comments moderator of sorts, a gatekeeper to Kotaku Tower, if you will. Someone who will prowl the posts and comments on a daily basis, weeding out the bad, helping out the conversation, anointing new readers and even, occasionally, writing a post or two.

We can only pay $200 a month for your help, but you do get to wield the mighty banhammer and will be given the keys to the commenting gates. If you remain interested, hit the jump for how to apply. Yes, there is a contest (of sorts) involved.

Sorry, I just can't help it. I need to make everything a contest these days. This is how it's going to work. On December 27, we're going to beg our tech geniuses to track down the five Kotaku commenters with the most followers. The top five who want to do this will all then have to explain, in comments, why they should be made the commenting czar. We'll use our own good judgment, and a pinch of public sentiment, to elect the new czar.

There's really no way to get a follower other than by getting other people decide to follow your comments. They do that by logging in and then clicking on the little plus sign symbol next to your comment in a post. Of course your followers will all have to be commenters, so make sure they sign up on the site.

If we catch you cheating we'll kick you out of the contest. So play nice. Don't even attempt to cheat.

After the festive (and necessary) purge, we'll be back Tuesday lighter, better, faster. Onward!