I think users appreciate super-simplified posting options when it comes to posting comments. Take Facebook and LinkedIn, for example, where it only shows the text box. However, both of those systems benefit by having high % of logged in individuals, so they can get away with that.

So my idea is to essentially only show the email address and name fields (and maybe submit) after the user starts typing a message. That way, the potential barriers to participating are eliminated until after they have made the decision to participate. And by that point, they are already mentally committed.

I believe this could increase the number of comments.

Does that make sense? Thoughts?