Shifting to FriendFeed per your request: I don't think commenting is dead. I think it has shifted to other mediums. People are still actively chatting and the social media concept is all about active participation and conversation. That's a form of commenting. It's just changing...or is it evolving? - Corvida

You're right, it is shifting. And that's what I'm getting at with the King is Dead metaphor. Commenting is actually more alive than it was before; but the traditional format of commenting is metaphorically dead. Before FriendFeed and Twitter and Disqus, comments on blogs weren't nomadic. As time goes on, we'll see more fragmentation (which I see as an opportunity). So I think it's both changing and evolving. - phil baumann