Comment management
IF I had a blog which anyone read and commented upon, I would edit the comments. A newspaper doesn't publish every letter they get nor do they publish every article which crosses the editor's desk. If I don't want litter on my blog, I'd toss it out. (That is, IF I had one they read...
!).
I notice that as a blog submerges under newer ones, the comments tend to stop, and if they don't they aren't responded to, so they aren't being read. I see also that it is an empiric truth that after about the third or fourth comment the comments tend to be a micturition contest if they are from the same people. Maybe a CAP on the number of comments? If you want to continue commenting on an older blog, email the author, get a personal dialogue going. If it's abusive, address that via the ISP.
And maybe a section called "Critiques/Whining/B^*#ching" where the flamers can sit around and blow razzberries about others and be exempt from getting onto the "top blog parade", just exempt it. Their bucks would still support the site but their pollution,er,free discourse would be limited and they could just cut loose?Heck, anyone could duck in and vent and rant, then duck back up into the rest of the site and produce some good stuff.Sort like a "blogema", or "blogative".