|Comments are also very good at inventing their own fallacies and contradictions. It doesn't matter how well thought out the comments are. That they exist prov

|Comments are also very good at inventing their own fallacies and contradictions. It doesn't matter how well thought out the comments are. That they exist provides counterpoint and devalues the original article. This is crucial because readers tend to overvalue written word "as gospel". |If every comment section was as well thought-out as HN (which still has issues), I would be surprised by closed comments. You are dismissing other opinions before they have even been written by assuming that quality comments only come from particular sources. This is very akin to an argument from authority fallacy. Even if a site was known to have "bad" comments, it doesn't mean ALL articles on that site will have bad comments. Links to articles are posted in a wide variety of other places attracting different readers and commenters.