Engadget disables commenting to combat the trolls. Is this the best way to deal with them?

Engadget has taken a somewhat drastic step and decided to disable commenting on its leading gadget blog.

In a blog post, editor Joshua Topolsky says:

“We know you like to have your fun, voice your opinions, and argue over your favorite gear, but over the past few days the tone in comments has really gotten out of hand…”

Topolsky continues:

“Some of you out there in the world of anonymous grandstanding have gotten the impression that you run the place, but that’s simply not the case.”

Many blogs leave it to readers to slate other commenter’s who may have taken things a step too far, some commenters even go out of their way to track trolls down. Other blogs, including the likes of like Techcrunch have a permanent comment review system in place before a comment goes live. You would think a blog of Engadget’s size would consider doing the same before disabling commenting entirely.

Here at The Next Web, we generally permit non-spammy comments and thanks to Disqus, other commenters are able to vote comments up and down so the better comments generally float to the top anyway.

Jolie O’Dell over at ReadWriteWeb has an interesting open thread on the matter which I recommend you dig into if you’re interested in learning others thoughts on the subject.