[leavingreddit]

In my humble opinion perhaps websites might benefit simply from more sorting filters on comments.

Reddit allows sorting by most upvoted and most controversial which is cool. However I wonder if sorting by the reading age of the comment for example might work. Perhaps creating a set of words which are inflammatory and sorting by most negative comments to most positive comments. Perhaps combining filters could be constructive.

Of course there are performance concerns here but nevertheless I'm sure there are better alternatives to banning comments in general.

[newswriter99]

The problem with the internet is it allows people to wall themselves off from information and people who contradict their view. Even if they're in need of said contradiction.

What you're describing is part of the problem, not the solution.

[leavingreddit]

I think that's a fair point. I've seen reddit change over the years into a place where people no longer debate in the comments section, they just find the thread they agree with and comment on that. It's part of why I'm looking for somewhere else.

[newswriter99]

Can you find it though? Or, like a string of trees in a rainstorm, will it too become saturated?

I'm no longer looking for an alternative. Wishing for the good old days of dial-up BBS like Totse is useless as well. However, there's still hope this will all turn out to be a narcissism fad which will eventually give way.

[barrkel]

Simple metrics like these sound a lot like they could be gamed.

There might be something useful in spam detection, but it's a fine line between moderation and censorship.