Plen­ty of peo­ple use the com­ments facil­i­ty on blogs like this one (and that one) as a dis­cus­sion forum, but unless you’re actu­al­ly one of the blog writ­ers you can’t start your own threads. But the Tex­ture pub­lic forum allows any­one to start their own thread (as long as they’re signed up). Tex­ture con­cen­trates on nightlife, music, art & din­ing, but com­ments on any­thing about Welling­ton that you like (such as Thai food) or loathe (such as tag­ging) are most wel­come.

They’re also start­ing to give away lots of free stuff, from tick­ets to Lit­tle Bush­man or the Alter­na­tive Rug­by Com­men­tary to Florid­i­tas vouch­ers. It’s all a shame­less ploy to get peo­ple involved in the forums, of course, but then again … free stuff!