[murphyslab]

> If you dont have positive feedback for a podcast why comment at all to begin with?

The quality of a podcast is not going to be uniformly positive. So a listener's feedback isn't going to be uniformly positive. It becomes a problem when the primary space for discussing a subject only permits positive feedback. Healthy communities do require negative feedback.

It's ironic that creator of Podbabble couches the creator-based moderation as a means to

> Foster healthy communities. Podbabble lets you moderate, adjust ratings, and flag comments as you see fit.

Too often, allowing the subject of a forum to moderate the forum leads to suppression of valid critique. And good critique can also come from outsiders; those who are not regular listeners.

A better alternative for Podbabble would be to allow creators to sponsor their podcast's forum, perhaps having it be featured more prominently or by removing comment rate limits.