Remove Comments Metabox but still allow comments

Don’t remove this via CSS. The _POST part is also active and WP save the data!
Use the hooks to remove meta boxes; code by scratch.

function fb_remove_comments_meta_boxes() {
    remove_meta_box( 'commentstatusdiv', 'post', 'normal' );
    remove_meta_box( 'commentstatusdiv', 'page', 'normal' );
    // remove trackbacks
    remove_meta_box( 'trackbacksdiv', 'post', 'normal' );
    remove_meta_box( 'trackbacksdiv', 'page', 'normal' );
}
add_action( 'admin_init', 'fb_remove_comments_meta_boxes' );

see more on a plugin to remove all UI-elements and function for comments: https://github.com/bueltge/Remove-Comments-Absolutely