Most of your comment seems to be an appeal to modest epistemology. We can in fact do better than total agnosticism about whether some arguments are productive or not, and worth having more or less of on the margin.
Note that the more you believe that your commenters can tell whether some arguments are productive or not, and worth having more or less of on the margin, the less you should worry as mods about preventing or promoting such arguments (altho you still might want to put them near the top or bottom of pages for attention-management reasons)
Note that the more you believe that your commenters can tell whether some arguments are productive or not, and worth having more or less of on the margin
My actual belief is that commenters can (mostly) totally tell which arguments are productive… but… it’s hard to not end up having those unproductive arguments anyway, and the site gets worse.
Note that the more you believe that your commenters can tell whether some arguments are productive or not, and worth having more or less of on the margin, the less you should worry as mods about preventing or promoting such arguments (altho you still might want to put them near the top or bottom of pages for attention-management reasons)
My actual belief is that commenters can (mostly) totally tell which arguments are productive… but… it’s hard to not end up having those unproductive arguments anyway, and the site gets worse.