Announcing TechCrunch’s new commenting system

At the heart of TechCrunch is our community. We want TechCrunch.com to feel like a home base for founders, investors and anyone who comes to us for breaking news and analysis of major tech giants and startups. That includes engaging with our community. We're excited to introduce TechCrunch readers to our new commenting system, which is powered by Spot.IM.

Some new features you can tap into:

• Real-time comments. You'll be able to see when someone's in the process of responding to you or typing a new comment.
• GIFs! Drop GIFs and images into the comment box.
• Top commenters.
• Text styling.
• Notifications when another user likes or replies to your comment.
• Community questions. This feature lets our writers pose questions to you directly on an article. Chime in with your ideas!

As always, bullying has no place on TechCrunch.

This includes but is not limited to harassment based on:

• Race
• Ethnicity
• Gender
• Gender identity and expression
• Sexual orientation
• Disability
• Physical appearance
• Body size
• Age
• Religion

If you breach these guidelines, you'll be banned for life. Use your best judgment and don't be a jerk.

Publishers must be bold in adopting user-centric models to win the web's war for attention. Spot.IM founder and CEO Nadav Shoval joined TechCrunch's Travis Bernard for a discussion on why publishers must be community-centric.