Personally I think the hardest part for any website design decision is deciding which features to put in, and which to leave out. You CAN add features like editing/HTML/reply/flag ext, BUT you don't have to. I think less is more now.
If its not a "geek" site where users know what all the icons mean then leave all the extra stuff out. I'm only including essentials on my new site. The populous needs only the lay version. So unless your demographic is versed in the extended features of a forum/comment system, just keep it dumbed down so anyone can jump on there and get the job done.