[bonton89]

My local news website sort of went through a similar set of transitions and I don't know what the moderation activities behind the scenes were.

At first they had their own accounts to sign up for on the main website, there were definitely some unsavory characters and trolling but I'd say by and large it was just normal commenting. They announced that due to abuse or moderation issues (I can't recall which) they were switching to facebook commenting, which ostensibly has a real names policy.

A month later comments were removed from the website altogether. The only users left were some of the nastiest posters ever and didn't seem concerned about their real name being up there next to the consistently awful things they had to say, possibly because they were mentally ill. I know I had no desire to interact with them and using my real name on a site full of crazy people sounded like only something a crazy person would do.

[n9]

Moderation is expensive and difficult and failing to do it well will kill your community dead. The evidence of this is pretty obvious today... only niche communities have active and positive engagement so far as I can see.