it is a new way to lock users in, too.

Comments are often not interesting, not constructive. But when you get some story that makes you think, it is great that we have comments on it. Also, I believe that the writers can benefit a lot from comments that ask further questions or connects it to something else - there you get some tips for the next article. I personally think that the format of the comment is too lame and boring. It is a sequential listing of one comment after another. I would want some visualization, mapping of ideas in some ways. I like people voting on comments to weigh them (Digg has it already, among other places).

The article remarks that it is not clear if this petition is a serious attempt or a prank. I think it is a mixture. Some are being ironical, some patently serious, others just having fun and yet others making fun of others, perhaps.