An Excellent Comment on Comment Moderation

As a general rule, I avoid aggressive monitoring of comments. Megan McArdle explains my reasoning well in describing her own similar policy: As y’all know, I exercise a pretty light hand on the comments section. That’s a tough choice. I could probably have a more civil comments section if I were more willing to delete nasty comments and ban trolls. On the other hand, I don’t trust myself in the position of censor…. One will always find most outrageous those people who disagree with one’s own pet notions. If I started deleting comments, the net effect would be to pull the comments section towards agreeing with my particular brand of libertarianish, market-loving philosophy. This is not, to my mind, the point of the comments section. So I delete comments only when they are obscene or intolerably nasty; I ban people only when they have a history of repeatedly derailing threads, defaming my family, or similarly doing things that would get them kicked out of any decent private home

See more here:
An Excellent Comment on Comment Moderation