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I agree with this, but while participants here on FR are generally well behaved, it isn't the case everywhere. Recently I was on several sports and entertainment sites where some of the most vile, nasty, things I've seen in awhile were going back and forth over football and which film finished first at the box office that week! People threatening to kill each other, Jewish conspiracies, aliens, and who knows what else tossed about over things most of us just shrug our shoulders at and move on. I think shutting down the comments sections is going to become the trend over the next few years.

I think shutting down the comments sections is going to become the trend over the next few years.

That would be a terrible shame. It's true that many of the comments at these news sites are either: irrelevant, stupid, inaccurate, incredibly mean spirited, or offensive; but that is true of all day to day conversation that one encounters.

The value of the comments section doesn't come from the dumb posts. It comes from the hidden gem posts that are mixed into the dumb posts.

Reading the comments section is like panning for gold: You have to separate the worthless sands of mental excrement from the nuggets of wisdom.