See: https://meta.discourse.org/t/embedding-discourse-comments-via-javascript/31963
Not suggesting it be done for all journals, just the official, staff-managed iNat blog.
Pros
- nicely formatted discussions
- drives more people to use forum
- makes discussion more cohesive, prevents duplicative conversations
- side conversations can be split to new topics
- more robust tools for managing inappropriate or wholly off-topic comments
- encourages people to heart comments rather add short, spammy feeling comments like “I agree” / “+1 me too” / etc
- blog posts less hidden once they drop off the front iNat dashboard
- users can set up emails or notifications for new topics posted in the official iNat blog category
Cons
- requires users to log into the forum