I agree completely. It appears that the problem behind the newly announced commenting changes can be simplified to an "innocent until proven guilty" argument. T

I agree completely. It appears that the problem behind the newly announced commenting changes can be simplified to an "innocent until proven guilty" argument. The new system assumes that the users commenting on HN are immediately guilty of offensive comments. Another potential problem is that people will begin to purposefully tone-police themselves in an effort to appease the gatekeepers and ensure their comments are approved. This will likely result an atmosphere in which moderators and those with high karma create - one in which many unpopular opinions are silenced via unapproved comments. As someone who is an inactive user, with absolutely no karma, I'm not looking forward to having to jump through hoops in order to have comments approved. Why not wait to see if I'm an actual troll or jerk before deciding that I need to be policed?