LinkedIn now lets you choose when comments appear in long-form articles

LinkedIn is rolling out additional features designed to maintaining the collaborative and professional spirit of the professional social network. On Wednesday, it began rolling out the ability for users to manage comments on their long-form articles. So depending on what you write and whether you’re interested in a dialogue, it’s easy to toggle whether comments are enabled or not.

In a time when the internet has become increasingly hostile, whether it’s on Twitter or Facebook, companies that operate as platforms have begun implementing safety measures to protect their users. LinkedIn said that more than 3 million members are publishing stories and articles every week across a wide range of topics, be it health care, machine learning, leadership, SEO tips, and more. And while anyone has the right to publish whatever they want, it can sometimes result in less than constructive criticism.

My Trump post has now 600+ hate comments. And under their real names. Some even want me to die. https://t.co/5SrEbJVyxq

— Loic Le Meur (@loic) February 8, 2017

While you’re composing an article within LinkedIn’s platform, comments can be disabled by checking the “disable comments” option within Comment settings. This can be done only through the desktop, so if you’re writing on mobile, you will have to jump to another device to disable comments. If you disable comments from posts with existing comments, they’ll be deleted permanently. Commenting can be turned back on at any time.

LinkedIn said that there are plans to expand the feature to include posts.

Above: LinkedIn now lets you disable comments from appearing in long-form articles.

Image Credit: LinkedIn

“We continue to encourage two-way conversations on LinkedIn, and for many members who publish, comments are a great way to start discussions and can lead to broader reach. At the same time, we want to give you greater choice in the types of conversations you have on LinkedIn,” explained company product manager Heidi Wang in a post.

She also highlighted that for those times when comments are allowed and inappropriate things are said, LinkedIn does have a report feature that can be used to flag and hide the abusive or offensive remarks made on your article or post.

Today’s update builds on previous enhancements LinkedIn has made, including redesigning the publishing interface to allow members to feel like they can express themselves and engage the community to share ideas and important insights.