Generally speaking, I think the civility on Hacker News is pretty good. I'd be interested to see a widely frequented news site / blog that had a more civil tone

Generally speaking, I think the civility on Hacker News is pretty good. I'd be interested to see a widely frequented news site / blog that had a more civil tone on average. As for his suggestions: 1. If people have to post under real names then a lot of people with skin in the game won't post. It's as simple as that. I've no doubt the civility on average would improve, but the content -- and the insight from key people -- would go downhill. 2. Sure, no harm in flagging comments. Though if enough people down vote inappropriate comments that's probably better from a community perspective. One person flagging a comment as inappropriate does send the same message as 30 people down voting a comment does. 3. Sure.