Believe it or not, comments will speed up the page loading times significantly.
Why, you ask? Well, each of our pages are set to 15 comments. After that, a new page is automatically created. If that page contains only text, that page will load instantly. But if it contains 4 hi-rez pictures, gifs, videos, or youtube links in each comment, that page will take FOREVER to load, and it will choke older machines that have less ram.
We expect comments to 1) be highly respectful to the pix or vid poster, 2) be interesting or add information that will help explain the photo, and 3) Be on topic.
It will also save the hassle of having to copy pictures over to a separate comment thread, which many people find confusing, awkward, time-consuming, and just plain a hassle. I will lobby the other mods to have a General Discussion for each apartment so we can discuss issues that don't directly relate to a picture. In other words, it will be much like it was before we experimented with the current system, except for being "On topic" will be strictly enforced.
And besides, methinks the pix threads will need some padding from here on out because there will be a whole lot less pix to scroll through.