The comment box should feel like a margin, not a megaphone.
A page without comments can still be beautiful, but it has a different temperature. The reader sits alone with the text. That can be useful. It can also make a student blog feel sealed behind glass. A small comment area says something else: pull up a chair, leave a note, continue the thought.
The design of that invitation matters. A comment box should not behave like a fight arena by default. It should ask for a name and a note. It should sit under the article, after the reader has had time to listen. It should make the first contribution feel modest enough to attempt.
For an MVP, local comments are enough to test the feeling. The student's note appears under the article. Refresh the page, and it remains on their machine. That is not a community system yet, but it is a working sketch of participation. It teaches layout, tone, empty states, and the rhythm of response.
Later, real comments will need moderation, spam protection, and shared visibility. But do not skip the small version because the large version is serious. The small version can answer a product question today: does this reading room feel better when the reader can write back?