By popular demand, we’ve altered the comment rating system such that comments that receive very poor marks continue to be color coded but are no longer “hidden” and thus requiring an additional click to view. For the most part, the old system achieved what I hoped it would: signal to readers which comments were outside the acceptable bounds of the debate in the OTB community. It occasionally got abused–although almost always when a lot of outside traffic came to the post from another major blog–but it was rare, indeed, that a cogent comment was downgraded so often that it was hidden from view. By removing that option, commenters still see when their contribution is unwelcome but the comment itself remains for all to judge.
