@uninspiredcup: I’ll take your word on Resetera, as I’m not sure I’ve ever even visited that site. I also generally support the sentiment behind not shutting down conversation, as you and I have just proven that such a thing is worth pursuing. I would argue, though, that the articles in question rarely involve much conversation to begin with. Yes, the voices of some decent people are lost in the process, but just as the government reserves the right to shut down a protest that gets out of hand, GameSpot can and should maintain an overall atmosphere of civility. Such a thing is never a forgone conclusion and can be incredibly difficult to regain once it’s lost.

Like I said, though, I understand where you’re coming from and there are really no clear cut answers on this one.

@uninspiredcup: I suppose anything’s possible, but I’m not seeing any signs of a leftist takeover. I don’t subscribe to any particular ideology so I don’t have a dog in this fight, but since you brought it up I feel it’s worth pointing out that no one really takes over websites/social media quite the way neo-conservatives do. Left-leaning communities also seem to be less toxic (with exceptions, obviously) than what we’ve seen from conservative communities lately, probably due to the fact that decent people of all ideologies tend to either jump ship or stay quiet when the neo-cons arrive.

Remember: there's a very real danger that GameSpot could turn completely toxic the way IGN has (true, that site often seems to cultivate that toxicity and capitalize on it, but that's a story for another day). Mods, at least the ones over there, are so limited in power and number that once that ball started rolling there was no real way to stop it (again, whether or not they wanted to stop it is up for debate). Shutting down comments for certain topics is an effective means of keeping the overall toxicity levels from elevating past the point of no return, when level-headed people like you and me get so fed up we jump ship and leave the site in the hands of, well, we all know who I'm referring to here.

I was wondering about this as well