Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Today, user generated content is a the golden goose that also shits everywhere and honks at everyone that comes through the door unless you police it tirelessly Meh, some sort of good spam filter + good moderation (not of dissident opinion but of pure trash , oneliners and other boring stuff) and you'll resolve most issues, at least when it comes to blog comments.
"good moderation" is hard and exhausting. it may be possible for your small blog with little traffic, but for something like kottke.org?
Indeed, it is possible. My blog (pretty much unchanged in format since 2004) gets around 500 page views/day and averages ±10 comments/week. Just right, small enough that I can respond personally to comments.