Well, that stunk. We admit it: TypeKey was not a good idea. We thought it was worth a try — and still think it was — but the results were underwhelming. Comment volume declined. Readers complained.

It wasn’t all bad. We’d be lying if we said we missed the bad apples. You know the ones: the people who could justifiably be called troublemakers, jerks, borderline schizophrenics, shameless political candidates, or all of the above.

But we missed the regulars who stopped giving feedback. And let’s face it: TypeKey kind of sucked. The final straw came last night when this DCist tried, without success, to leave comments using two different browsers on two different operating systems — none of them IE or Windows, the platforms that we knew were causing problems. I have a higher tolerance for mucking around with cookies than the average user, but this was too much. TypeKey’s technology doesn’t seem to play nicely with this website, so we’re bidding it a not-too-fond farewell.

But we’re still thinking about the site’s comments and how to improve them. We might amend our comment policy. We’re looking into displaying IP address hashes, so that commenters can be tied to their address without it being revealed. And the boys at Gothamist Labs are working on a TypeKey-alternative called “Tiny Orwell,” which we hope you’ll agree sounds promisingly creepy. But for now, please enjoy the rediscovered anarchy that is DCist comments.