My only advice: find your own comfort level. I think it's great that you hang out in the comments section (not everyone does), but you can't let maintenance distract you from what you consider important.

I appreciate that, but here's the thing about that: I've never considered "hanging out in the comment section" to be a distraction or a luxury. Part of it is that I think people who make public arguments have an obligation to be responsive and answer objections and inquiries (obviously not all -- one has to exercise judgment, it has to be consistent with time constraints, etc.).

But more important than that has been that the comment section has always been a very valuable resource for me. I literally couldn't count the posts I've written over the years that came from things comments said or pointed to (including some of hte highest-impact ones). Knowing that any errors you make -- from highly substantive ones to semantic ones to typos -- will be quickly spotted and pointed out by knowledgeable people is a critical check. And hearing smart objections to what I write from both like-minded people and those with vehemently different views is critically important - it makes you think twice about things you believe and often expands or even changes your views.

Beyond that, I think it's very valuable for readers here to have a place where they can exchange ideas, have smart debates and arguments, and otherwise commune with other readers. There are so many ways that's valuable to me and to people here.

But that all requires some minimal level of quality to the discussion and some good faith on the part of most contributors. There are always disrupters and idiots, but those can be managed as long as they stay small in number. But as they increase and take over, they crowd out constructive contributors, and then a tipping point is reached where the valuable things one can get is outweighed by the time and energy required to find them.

I don't intend to spend huge amounts of time here pondering every comment for deletion and ensuring absolute fairness. I'm not going to spend time here refereeing or debating any of it. I have a good idea of what's causing the problems and intend to wield a fairly blunt instrument in eliminating it. I used to believe that full-fledged, unregulated discussions were the best, but I guess - as you suggest - it gets to a point where that is no longer true.

note to all other readers: yes, this adds absolutely nothing to the discourse. sorry about that. i've given up all hope of an actual exchange of ideas here at salon, and now only respond to trolls)

Exactly - that's what I was just explaining to Holly. And it's not your fault at all.

I'm going to be engaging in a much higher rate of deletions -- without any concern about whether they're scrupulously fair -- and what you just said, which I've heard from many people here and believe myself -- is exactly the reason why.

but you haven't given Glenn any chance to respond with an explanation of why he cited the man the way he did.

How else should the man be cited? I saw the phrase he used to describe this bill -- "legalizes suppression" -- and liked it. Rather than steal it, I wanted to quote him to give him credit. To do so, I identified who he is.

This is something that merits lots of discussion in the comment section?

The fact is that he has done an extraordinary amount of political work, but I'm not going to bother detailing that because it doesn't really matter. I found his phrase a perfect summation of what this bill does and thus quoted him. That's it.

It's stuff like this that is making me check the comment section these days once or twice a day -- as opposed to regularly -- and is on the verge of driving me, for the first time, to engage in mass deletions in an effort to drive away those I perceive as responsible for the erosion here and in a last-ditch effort to restore the comment section to a place where one can read it and feel productive rather than having to wade through piles of worthless, repetitive dreck before finding something worthwhile (this is not, obvious, directed at you).

There always have been -- and still are -- a lot of very smart, informed people in my comment section who, through their criticisms, objections, contributions, knowledge, links, etc., help me in many ways. But the price of finding those contributions is increasingly high in terms of time and energy and I'm determined to reverse that trend.