Tired of Abuse, Engadget Turns Off Comments

The editors at Engadget have had it up to here with nasty, over-the-top commenters. The tech site temporarily disabled comments today because their tone over the last week "has really gotten out of hand," explains a note to readers. "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."

Editor Joshua Topolsky tells VentureBeat that the flood of iPad coverage in recent days attracted lots of new readers. But many were coming simply "to incite arguments. They’ll post things like ‘VAIOs suck, Macs rule,’ or ‘Macs are gay.’ They’ll go off-topic and get racist or sexist just to be inflammatory. ... One guy posted page after page of ‘f--- you, bitch’ to one of our female editors.” Comments will be back in a few days, and Topolsky isn't sure whether the move will work. "Honestly, it's a bit of an experiment."
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