Why do you think that's the case? Are there any cases of blogger getting much more popular after switching to a different comment system?
It's a good question, maybe it does not, I am not aware of any A/B testing done on that. I simply go by the trivial inconveniences.
And what comment system would you advocate?
Scott is against reddit-style karma system, so I'd go for Scott marking comments he finds interesting, at a minimum.
Additionally, comment formatting and presentation which improves nesting and visibility would be nice. Reddit/LW is an OK compromise, userfriendly.org is better in terms of seeing more threads at a glance.
Scott is against reddit-style karma system
There are many reasons against using the reddit code base. While it's open source in theory it's not structured in a way that allows easy updating.
Is there any solution that would be plug&play for a wordpress blog that you would favor Scott implementing?
Coding something himself would be more than a trival inconvenience.
I also think you underrate the time cost of comment moderation. Want to be a blogger and wanting to moderate a forum are two different goals.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
Notes for future OT posters:
1. Please add the 'open_thread' tag.
2. Check if there is an active Open Thread before posting a new one. (Immediately before; refresh the list-of-threads page before posting.)
3. Open Threads should be posted in Discussion, and not Main.
4. Open Threads should start on Monday, and end on Sunday.