We've always said that the community and their inciteful and insightful comments are one of the best things about Kotaku, and we mean it. That's why our wonderful tech folks are always working to improve how comments work.
Starting today we've been giving a few more options to help moderate comments, making sure we can keep the conversations going and deal with off topic comments with a bit more finesse.
We now have several more options available to us when comments wander off topic or get out of hand. We can still ban, of course, but now we can also move a comment thread entirely to a more fitting place like, say, Kotaku's own... #cornfield.
I can't tell you a lot about the cornfield that surrounds Kotaku Tower, all I can say is that I wouldn't want to go there. It's a lonely place of hateful trolls, finger-pointing children, Houyhnhnms and Yahoos. And sometimes people just go missing out there.
We can also give someone a public warning, or suspend someone for a week, essentially slapping a big dunce cap on them for a week until they can get their head right again.
Banning will remain an option as well, though now, with these warnings, teleports and suspensions, I'd like to think they'll happen a lot less.
Most importantly, when any of these things happen an automated message should show up under the comment for all to see.
Please be patient with us and the tech as we work through any last minute issues and get used to handling these new tools. Excuse, for instance, any accidental trips to the cornfield or dunce cap placements.
Now would also be a great time to read our primer on commenting.