“Report” button for comments
I have been a member for many years and I believe that SA should consider an option to report comments that readers believe are overtly offensive or use obscene language. Leaving moderation of article comments to the author is not a strong enough stance. Please consider this option on highly trafficked articles.
You're kidding, right? They have always had the ability to report comments, and they give the reporter a list of reasons for reporting (obscenities, etc.).
But the problem is that the reporter is always assumed to be correct, and the comment is always deleted. No investigation is ever done. This leads to petty people with too much time on their hands reporting things willy-nilly and trashing discussions. I've had days where I've gotten tens of emails from SA telling me that various comments have been deleted for trumped-up reasons - comments that are often months or years old. The reporters know that when a certain number of comments get reported, you get put on various disciplinary statuses like "moderator's approval required" or "suspended". Or if you protest to SA management, you also get suspended.