HN is a fairly rare exception among news-commenting forums, in having a reasonable level of polite and intelligent discussion. Perhaps the Economist's forums w

HN is a fairly rare exception among news-commenting forums, in having a reasonable level of polite and intelligent discussion. Perhaps the Economist's forums were another such exception, I don't know. But I know that most newspapers' online comments sections are cesspools. I earnestly wish that ft.com, for example, would just eliminate its comment section. Every time I make the mistake of scrolling past the end of an ft article and into the comments, I regret it. Thoughtful articles are regularly followed by mindless dismissals from arrogant users. Questioning of the editorial stance is only valuable if it's done with a bit of intelligence. Maybe the newspapers should decide to either "go big or go home" with their comments section. Either work hard to establish a HN-like community, with a working community moderation system and meaningful reply nesting, or abolish the comments section. I think abolishing comments is better than trying to have a comments section "on the cheap" which gets filled with low-quality content.