Daring Fireball with comments
daringfireballwithcomments.net
daringfireballwithcomments.net
(Either those comments are a bad attempt at satire or they perfectly illustrate just why Daring Fireball doesn't have comments.)
I have to say that I think Daring Fireball is better _without_ comments. I presume that this site was set up without John Gruber's consent. This raises the question: Is this a spam blog?
If it is a spam blog I'm very impressed by the level of the details put into it.
Not in my opinion. For me, the defining characteristic of a spam blog is copied content surrounded by adverts. This design stays true to daringfireball.net, to the point that it still has ads from the Deck with DB referral links. So no, not a spam blog.
Even if there are no ads, there are secondary benefits to MacHeist. In addition to the free press, they'll get a nice link source.
Spam is intent, not form.
Somebody will say "Yes it can", but no, it can't. Fair Use considers the quantity used, and using 100% of a substantial body of work is not fair use. Furthermore, even if this is satire, which I would consider dubious, the satire is not in the use of the original material. This can be proved by the fact that the "satire" still stands if you just provide a link back to the original work, then a comment section beneath that. This is actually not a bad idea for a site or family of sites, but only if it works by linking the original. You know, like reddit or HN, neither of which would be in a safe legal position if instead of linking to things they copied them onto the site in bulk.
There's some weird synergies between this and the conversations about comment quality kicked up by Engadget temporary shutting down their comment system.
I really wish kottke opened up comments on every post. When he does, it's quite spectacular. e.g. http://kottke.org/08/06/survival-tips-for-the-middle-ages