On comment abuse

On comment abuse

one other problem with the existing comment structure is that if I go through and read the comments when there are 30 of them and then come back the next day and notice that there are now 35 (assuming I notice the number is different) it's really hard to find the new comments, I basicly have to re-read all the comments again.

This makes the trolls even more of a problem becouse I have to deal with their posts repeatedly.

the LWN subscription rates are low enough that I don't think it should be a problem to limit posts to subscribers (I will also note that since this thread can't be read by non-subscribers for a week it's going to be pretty heavily biased this way, and most subscribers will not come back to this topic next week to discuss theings with non-subscribers) although if you are still having any problems with forign subscription payments you should keep it open to non-subscribers.

I really don't like the idea of open member moderation, it really doesn't work well on /.

instead you should look at 'staff' moderation (I put staff in quotes as it may include unpaid staff that you trust) along the lines of the firewalls-wizards mailing list. set some ground rules about what is allowed and amke sure those rules specificly say that things are not moderated based on points of view, but just filter out messages that are out of line. Make it so that when a post is rejected it's sent back to the poster via e-mail along with a explination on why it's being rejected, that way people can alter the message and try again.