It's a fact that writers and editors can no longer ignore: public online commenting continues to thrive and has become a hallmark of news. Today all media consumers expect to leave their opinion as much as they expect a doorway into a room. Yet commenters are often overlooked, thought of as an afterthought or an annoyance. This top-notch panel will discuss the ways we can harness the power of the public's contribution, and how we can take the conversation beyond elite in-fighting and potential all-caps, name-calling matches to yield something more substantive and useful in science news.