Spam and flame wars are not at all a new phenomenon. The decline of intelligent conversation amidst the noise does seem pretty new. I think this may be more r

Spam and flame wars are not at all a new phenomenon. The decline of intelligent conversation amidst the noise does seem pretty new. I think this may be more related to the nature of these sites and the communities that form around them, rather than merely to the scale of the community. Sites that go for a very broad appeal rather than targeting a specific, well-defined audience tend to have much lower-quality comments. Engadget is a great example - it is a consumer-oriented tech blog, and it's structured more like a traditional publication than an online community. The comments there are almost always not worth reading. On the other hand, I visit sites like HN, Slashdot, and Ars Technica primarily for the discussions.