Stephen suggested this contribution from PhD Comics suggesting what a world where academic articles had comment threads might in fact be like, might be related to the academic blogging thread.

Though it may be some while before comments on Biblical Studies or Ancient World blogs descend to that level, it does point to the possibility of greater quality control as a "desirable feature" of academic conversations (note how many blogs have comment moderation now ;) though, of course this is a two edged sword, potentially shutting down dissent, as well as protecting us from the Lolcats and spammers!