why not lock replies in such threads to being non-repliable? its not the initial comments or the replies but the giant argument chains that are the problem. or you could allow arguments but offload them to twitter spaces or another real-time platform thats well-suited to such nonsense.

> why not lock replies in such threads to being non-repliable?

People would just post their replies at the top level instead.

for me, not being able to harass a comment from directly below takes a lot of the visceral enjoyment out of it. but ok.

Yup and being denied that enjoyment would create resentment that would convert into mischief.

Basically, technical tricks for controlling discussion don't really work—that's been our experience anyhow.