Sites approach comments sections in vastly different ways. There's the libertarian, laissez-faire approach; algorithmically determined, scientific moderation; and the outright removal of the section. Mozilla, best known as the creator of the Firefox web browser, will now team up with the New York Times and the Washington Post to improve them.
The platform will eventually be available to download for free
The platform, expected to be completed in two years, was funded by a $3.9 million grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for journalism. Eventually, it'll be available for any news organization to download for free, according to the Times, which itself screens every comment before it's published and has devoted six employees to working on the as-yet-unnamed platform.
What will it look like? "Readers will be able to submit pictures, links and other media; track discussions; and manage their contributions and online identities," according to a press release cited in the Times.