Allowing totally unmoderated comments could lead to the worst aspects of the interent - bullying, harrassment, doxing - as well as open the organisation hosting the comments to legal issues. Free speech may be protected (in the US anyway - most western countries don&#x27;t have anything like the free speech protection laws that you do, and that&#x27;s not always a bad thing), but that doesn&#x27;t give anyone the right to post their speech anywhere.<p>People may enjoy participating in flame wars, but they don&#x27;t bring much value to the reader. Judging by the number of upvotes, comments tend to be read by far more people than participate. Often insightful and well thought out comments are a pleasure to read. Flame wars? Less so.<p>Maybe I&#x27;m coming from a very different point of view though. By far my favourite discussion websites are the ones with agressive moderation policies and a financial barrier to entry. That seems to do wonders to encourage thoughtful and interesting comments.