I remember when people would post stuff on their website and people would respond by posting their own retort on their own website, linking to the original arti

I remember when people would post stuff on their website and people would respond by posting their own retort on their own website, linking to the original article. Then there might be another retort back, or others would chime in on their own websites... And it was great! People took time to formulate arguments or counterpoints (this didn't guarantee they were correct or even sensible) in a long form that actually contributed to the discussion. If you want to troll people in response to a post, it meant you had to do it on your own website! I hope we go back to this. It's dirt cheap now to get a wordpress blog or similar. I wish wordpress came with comments disabled by default and all that pingback and RSS stuff would get more attention. It was a much more interesting time to read on the web.