comments on articles, yes or no?

I am assuming the you are talking about the website in your sig?
First of all, it's a beautiful website, looks great.

If you are going to open it for comments, make sure that each comment is moderated before displayed. Else there is 100% chance to get spammed to death.

Rather than just normal comment, I would prefer to link facebook comments for my articles. This way, the article gets free promotion when someone drops a comment.

I don't think there's a "right answer" to this. It depends what kind of site it is, and whether you want to encourage interaction.

I see that having comments enabled but not showing any might make it look like nobody's interested. But on the other hand, if you don't enable them, nobody can comment at all. Obviously enough.

You can perhaps try them in a couple of selected places only and encourage people you know to "set the ball rolling" to make it not look bad?

Personally I have all comments disabled on all of my sites, because I don't want them to look "interactive" or "social" at all. (I have no social media buttons either). With my style of sites, I just think those things make them look less authoritative and it isn't how I want them to come across. (Plus, of course, it's easier and less time-consuming not to have to moderate comments and filter out all the inevitable spam and nonsense!).

Less than 1% of site visitors will comment on an article even under ideal conditions. Let your comments grow organically and don't worry about it.

I think it depends on how you ask.

Which would inspire you to offer a comment?

"Comments: (No comments yet)"

or

"Be the first - what do you think about this?"

I echo the suggestion to moderate comments, especially from first time commenters. If you're on Wordpress, using the Akismet and Bad Behavior plugins will kill 95%+ of the automated crapola.

Have standards for what you will or won't allow (links, keywords for names, profanity, etc.) and don't be bashful about sharing or enforcing them. It's your site, not a democracy.

Be selective about which articles are open for comments and which are not appropriate. For example, I skimmed the "what if I don't drink" article on the site in your sig. To me, that is the kind of article where appropriate comments could both add fresh content and add to your "know, like and trust" points, especially if you participate and make it a conversation.

Definitely allow comments.

And there's nothing wrong with having comments, simply make sure that you have to approve them before they're published and use Akisment to capture spam before it gets there and you'll have no problem

Comments help your website seem to be visited by many people. You have to approve or disapprove many of the comments that are not filtered.

Don't waste your time with silly comments. When the comments are not related to your article (somehow at least) or when the user has a strange user name (and not a person’s name) simply mark them as spam. Don't publish spam comments only because you want to have comments at your website; they won't help you in any way.

Each person have to start from somewhere. Your fan base will build up over time

You should definitely have comments enabled. Furthermore, if you are worried about having little to no comments then you can pay people on Microworkers to comment on your blog for you. Or you can just seed them yourself, if you have time.

If you're trying to create a site that promotes you as an authority, you don't really have to open your articles to discussion. You could have a separate "blog" section, separate from your informational articles, if you really wanted to promote engagement, but I don't think it's absolutely necessary.

I agree, too - your site is great!