Some of us have intuitively known this for a long time — virtual communities, user-generated content, comments on stories — need control. Now an actual university study backs the observation: Users participate more when comments are moderated.

“The idea of having no moderation is initially appealing but in practice, if there is no moderation, bad things happen,� he says. “Threads get hijacked, flame wars break out.�

“People want to have the opportunity to have some kind of discussion, and keep things open,� Wise adds. “At the same time, what they don’t want is for the discussion to get totally sidetracked.�

Ideally, you post comments live, but maintain heavy oversight, removing off-track comments as you find them.