You make some really good points here. The one about the comments adding to the article chimed with me particularly. That said, I've seen some excellent 'comment debates' derailed by trolls, and I have some sympathy with Tim Denning, but would say it's far better to learn to skim over trolls without inhaling. And yes, if I had his number of comments to deal with, I wouldn't be able to respond to them all, but when people take the trouble to comment on what I write, I prefer to acknowledge them.