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Feature suggestion

Add a new option for moderators to temporarily and/or permanently restrict new comments (e.g., disallow all new comments, or require moderator approval for new comments, by all users or for specific users) for a specific Answer only (and also, perhaps, independently for the Question).

The "moderator feature" I'm suggesting is intended to make it easier for moderators to further pro-actively preserve the helpful friendliness that I've come to enjoy in this community. I'm particularly concerned that if a new user sees hostile comments (see below) or receives them in response to their first contribution, that they may get discouraged due to getting a wrong first impression.

Background / Justification

In light of a recent problem where a few users have been posting hostile comments to one of my answers, and where a moderator assisted by deleting all comments (except for the first few that were actually constructive), it may be a useful feature for moderators to be able to restrict the posting of new comments for a particular Answer (or Question).

In this particular case, after the first round of comment deletions, I've noticed that more similarly hostile comments are again being posted which include sentences such as:

  • "I'm very angry about the deletion" (aimed at the moderator who deleted the inappropriate comments); and,

  • "Don't put unlikely explanations in their mouths that make them look daft" (in response to a constructive comment by someone else who was contributing in a positive and helpful manner).

Clearly, these types of contributions are not helpful, and do not provide any valuable insight or useful information. As a member of this community I feel that these types of comments are inappropriate in a manner that works negatively against what this site is trying to achieve, and having the right tools can help to lower the burden in dealing with them.

Thanks in advance.

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    Does locking the answer for a while not work for you in this case?
    – random Mod
    Aug 8, 2011 at 2:12
  • The moderator who deleted the offending comments explained that only the whole Question (with all its Answers) could be locked to new Comments and Answers (at least that was my understanding), and I didn't want to see that happen. Locking my Answer would have been acceptable to me at the time (but I'm glad that didn't happen because someone else contributed another helpful Comment after the first round of Comment deletions). Aug 8, 2011 at 2:20
  • @random I think that the user is asking for the ability to restrict comments ONLY and not lock editing or answering (in the case of a question).
    – gparyani
    Aug 5, 2014 at 19:29

1 Answer 1

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We do have a feature available for the purposes of preventing comments from being added, while still preserving what comments are left. This feature is known as locking, and while it does also affect voting and editing, using it to stop "comments gone wild" is a very standard application of this practice.

We can lock a singular answer and this will affect only the answer selected.

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    problem is, locking a question locks out all the answers.
    – Sathyajith Bhat Mod
    Aug 8, 2011 at 7:03
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    @Sathya Locking a question prevents new answers a la close, but it does not actually lock them. You can confirm this by noting how you can vote and edit and comment on answers to this locked question. We have to take other measures when it comes to questions, but as it were, for answers, locking is a pretty effective tool.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Aug 8, 2011 at 10:08
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    huh, that's new. Could've sworn locking the question locked out all answers too. Thanks anyway.
    – Sathyajith Bhat Mod
    Aug 8, 2011 at 10:13
  • There should be a way to disallow comments without restricting editing and voting.
    – gparyani
    Sep 19, 2014 at 16:15
  • @Sathya Based on what I've seen, locking a question for historical significance does lock the answers, but locking for any other reason does not lock the answers.
    – gparyani
    Sep 19, 2014 at 16:15

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