I hope the new system is a success but this comment is not believable:

"We noticed that the number of comments for that section remained stable during the test period"

As an active poster I know that the number of comments dropped drastically for articles using the new system. Now the overall total for the entire section may not have changed much - because only a small number of articles were using the new system. My guess would be 1 in 10 or fewer articles used the new system. Why pretend that the new system had no effect on reader participation when it clearly did? It is very disappointing to see the Globe disrespecting its readers by making the above deceptive claim.