Commenters, it was a heck of a weekend

Profanity. Racial epithets. Fake names. Name-calling. Cruelty. All of this in the comments sections for stories on our website. Most of them overnight on Sunday. I won't go into the specifics of what people were saying, it was just that awful.

Cale Cowan Jan 28, 2014 10:33 AM

Profanity.

Racial epithets.

Fake names.

Name-calling.

Cruelty.

All of this in the comments sections for stories on our website. Most of them overnight on Sunday.

I won't go into the specifics of what people were saying, it was just that awful. There were numerous e-mail complaints and a few phone calls from readers.

Many were wondering how this could happen. Here's a sample:

"It would appear that online comments made to articles in the TC are not moderated at all, and the most heinous things are posted there without any scrutiny . . .

. . . This is by no means the first time I see abusive and otherwise objectionable comments posted without any form of moderation. I think it's by leaps and bounds preferable not to allow comments at all, or only to some articles, as the BBC and CBC do, than to allow this kind of diatribe on your site.

I do pay for my online subscription. If I continue to see this type of comments, I will quit my subscription."

It's a fair point. And the only way to solve the problem may be to eliminate commenting from our site.

On Monday, I spent a lot of time deleting offensive comments and banning a bunch of users.

Many print publications have eliminated online comments from their digital products for exactly this reason.

Popular Science no comments

Let's call that a last resort.

In the meantime, familiarize yourself with our commenting policies. It's at the top of every comment section.

But it boils down to this: no bad words and be nice. Should be easy to remember.

Remember that you can flag comments you find offensive (those that contravene our stated policy), by clicking the flag icon that appears to the right when you hover over a comment.