I missed the flamefest back on that thread. However, from time to time we get drive bys coming in here working to stir things up.

I remember calling one out and asking for people not to feed the trolls and that troll started trolling me about how they were not a troll but was debating in good faith — however I just quite paying attention.

I went back and viewed Dave K #58 and the name calling (w/o any sort of provocation) is a dead give away this person is not interested in discussion but disruption and I generally refuse to feed the trolls.

In that thread even if you are a lefty/Democrat there is no need to hurl gratuitous insults.

Once I remember here one guy attacked myself and others for our “Victor Davis Hanson” wannabee handles. In that case, I did respond and I thought it was worth it because I don’t remember his points being too crazy but he seemed rather hostile to us & Wretchard in general.

There really is no way short of moderation to head off such events. You can require registration but when a registration is revoked and the offender re-applies with a different handle or comes up with some scheme to mask their IP (or is behind a proxy server).

Plus moderation is not a task I would want to hassle with. I moderate comments at Blogger Beer and will probably turn it off as the troll who instigated has not appeared in a year or two now. A friend runs a local blog and does good with comments but usually no more than 10/post and she gavef up moderation a long time ago. Commentary is definitely rough and tumble but it is within bounds.

LOL, I just started writing rants on Craig’s List “Rants and Raves” for my locale. I read for a long time and had an enjoyable time writing a rant in the RnR style!