In reply to Ronald.

Thanks for the clarification, Ronald. I understand what you mean now, but it is a type of request I've never heard of before or wouldn't have thought of. :) The part I'm not understanding, is why you don't just add your own 'related links' to the end of the article (i.e.: just add the article title or a sentence about the article and link it). IMO, that would be more clear to the reader anyway, than a ping-back comment (which often appear more like spam).

Re: adding code - Agreed. You do have to be careful and do some testing with that kind of stuff, or hire someone to add it, etc. If that kind of thing is wanted enough, often a plugin will be developed for it. The discussion here is more about what should be added to core and why.

My argument is that the comment system, in general, is sub-par for a platform primarily used for publishing content and inviting discussion. And, it seems improving it has been left to 3rd parties, which creates non-uniform, 'clunky' behavior, or outright replacement (i.e.: Disqus... which comes with other concerns).

My conclusion seems to be that the people actually working on WordPress must not very actively use it (in terms of posting many comments on various WordPress blogs around the Web). Otherwise, the flaws would become quickly obvious.