Blogebrity reports that Engadget editor Peter Rojas has announced to writers of the Weblogs Inc., uber-gadget site that he is turning off comments on the site.
According to Rojas:
We’re closing comments on the main Engadget. The amount of spam, combined with a serious decline in the level of discourse on the site, has left me no choice but to close comments until further notice.
It really is a case of cutting off ones head to spite the face. One of the key growth factors in Weblogs Inc., sites has been the community participation, particularly in terms of commenting, to the point that they even started to reward frequent commenters with links in the side bar via a ratings system. Whether this is a sign of things to come for the now AOL owned Weblogs Inc., is to be seen, but my advice to Jason Calacanis: readers are fickle, and if you cut off participation Engadget will become the next Gizmodo. Great blog, high readership, but no longer top of the pops.
