Hi Rushab, well spotted - we just changed it a couple of hours back as a trial.

Not sure whether it’s a good idea or not yet but I thought it’d be worth giving a go.

It has been a regular feedback from some of our more sensitive readers that some of the comments and discussions to stories are in bad taste and not funny. Obviously, some readers would disagree.

If the comments are prima facie hidden, and people have to click on them expressly to see them, the theory is that it shields the more sensitive surfers from the worst of the web and leaves those who enjoy those conversations to do so.

Do please let me know your thoughts - if you think it is nonsense, I understand but I anticipate it may make our life slightly easier and cause less irate calls and emails asking us to delete comments.

Of course, that may be wishful thinking…

Please please let me know your thoughts, no final decision has been made about this yet.

Also, several other sites also use a similar system, such as Above The Law infamously.

http://abovethelaw.com/

Although it should be noted that most comments on ATL are far more offensive than 99% of what has been posted on LI. And no, that is not meant to be a challenge for readers.

Wasn’t this system in place on LI earlier?…derisive comments were to be clicked on to be read, weren’t they?(they had this tag of “low rated comment”) - now, however, all the comments have been hidden from the reader until clicked on, as opposed to the earlier system , which hid only comments that were very obviously derogatory…the reader, now, might then have to forgo reading all the other pleasant comments in order to avoid reading the occasional derogatory comment - a lot of posts engage the readers in constructive conversation , but for a comment or two - wasn’t the earlier system better?

Hi Beagle, thanks for feedback.

Sort of… We still have the system where low-rated comments are not shown. However, that it has been somewhat ineffective and generally resulted in comments which disagreed with the minority being voted down (although sometimes it would get rid of the derogatory, yes).

Now that system is still in place but the entire comments page also is hidden by default.

I understand the extra click is a bit of a pain (but it should load instantly) but I hope it will shield the more sensitive viewers from the comments and we will get less complaints.

We’ll give it a go for a while and see what happens, do let me know your thoughts!

Kian