Ironically, the Reddit community itself now recognizes that moderation is fundamental and essential: [...] This is as clear a call for active moderation as I’ve ever seen. And the moderators, to their credit, took charge and instituted changes to help guide their community away from the fatty junk food content:

A lot of people missed my talk so I recorded it in my office as soon as I got home from Austin. It covers mainly moderation tips and ideas for building tools for more effective moderation.

That chart is, for news organizations seeking to tame their commenters, perhaps the best evidence yet that adding a few obstacles for those seeking the leave their mark on a web page can actually lead to more comments. And better ones, too.