We love our comment section and our commenters, as they almost always provide an extended level of dialogue, debate, and fun here at Hot Air.  As we have grown in traffic and impact, our comment sections have grown accordingly — and that’s wonderful.  We try to open our registration on a regular basis to catch newer readers and allow them to participate, because that lends a dynamic element to Hot Air and the analysis provided by myself, Allahpundit, and Michelle Malkin.

However, that increased impact brings increased scrutiny, and also some underhanded tactics designed to discredit us.  That doesn’t mean that we haven’t seen problems in our comments section at Hot Air, though.  Others have used disparaging comments towards certain politicians and their families that cross the line.  We have tried to deal with this on a case-by-case basis, but it has taken an increasing amount of our time, and we’re likely to see more attempts to troll comments as a discrediting tactic.  We have been blessed with a great set of regular commenters who see these and notify us when they occur, which allows us to catch most of them.

Given the likelihood of further attempts to attack, we are going to start getting a lot tougher on comments and moderation.  We welcome debate and humor, but if you use racial, ethnic, and/or animal terms to describe politicians and their families (I’m certain I don’t need to explain further), your comments will get deleted and your account closed.  We have plenty to criticize without getting that ugly and handing our opponents ammunition — and besides, in the end, those attacks just aren’t right.  They detract from the overwhelming majority of conscientious commenters in the Hot Air community.

Let’s just keep it on point in the future, please.  Thank you for your support and understanding.