Maybe they are just smart capitalists: http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2012/08/lockups-and-insider-selling.html ;)

Actually, I like Sarah's point here:

Ultimately, there’s still too much of a trade-off: You can erect barriers to avoid anonymous trolls, but it creates friction that prevents people from commenting to begin with. There’s a lot more we want to do with comments and our developers have begged me to let them build a custom system that better fits our needs.

I wonder what else she wants to do with her comments.

Not sure, to me, clearly Facebook comments are a superior user experiences.

I actually dislike FB comments-- I recently commented on techcrunch using it and suddenly my facebox inbox, which is usually full of notifications from friends and family are random strangers liking and making pinheaded commentary (or insightful, it's, y'know, public comments). it feels like strangers tramping through my living room, not taking off their boots first.

as for the UI, I don't believe there much of a difference.

As what could be done with comments, when they are part of the publishing system, you can take them and make them articles... some people will do practically write an 800 word post in a comment. I might be one of those.

Our old CMS in my startup allowed for that and more. when you respect all writing as content, interesting things happen.

Wow, an 800 word post as a comment!

I never even considered that as a possibility.

Mind officially blown.