Right. I realized later that I framed this as something the commenter decides; it would also be possible to have this sort of thing replace authors deleting comments or ban users. The author could press the “boot” button, and then this boots the comment out of the comment section. But it doesn’t delete it, it just moves all discussion to wherever the comment was booted to (e.g. open thread or quick take or something). Maybe it also hides most of the comment, and shows a single response from the author. (Not especially advocating for this.)
Right. I realized later that I framed this as something the commenter decides; it would also be possible to have this sort of thing replace authors deleting comments or ban users. The author could press the “boot” button, and then this boots the comment out of the comment section. But it doesn’t delete it, it just moves all discussion to wherever the comment was booted to (e.g. open thread or quick take or something). Maybe it also hides most of the comment, and shows a single response from the author. (Not especially advocating for this.)