Is that what you understood from the note? I can tell you that is not what it says, nor the intention. We're asking for smart and respectful comments, opposed to toxic ones, that's it.
This was not triggered by the recent coronavirus thread, but an on-going trend we've been observing. At the very least give us the benefit of the doubt. I'm personally not familiar with what happened to those other sites you mention, but I am familiar with many others that decided to shut down comments entirely. I believe that's the easy approach and not the path we want to take.
"As of late however we’ve noticed an uptick in user comment
negativity and
cynicism that is contrary to this long standing tradition.
We are asking you to be part of a positive change. Members who decide to go against our
rules of respect and well intentioned commentary will be
moderated accordingly."
I've highlighted the important bits for you. Using clever words like "Moderating negative comments" is no different then censoring negative comments.
Since you are not familiar with those other sites, let me explain. Those other sites, and many hobbist forums int he late 2000s, began to "moderate" comments that they felt were too negative or "cynical". Notably, much as has happened in the coronavirus thread, these "moderations" usually ended up targeting people that were telling off toxic commenters. As time went on this behaviour worsened, and soon any comment critical of the site's moderation or content was being "moderated" to either be positive or removed completely, as the rest of the world calls it, Censorship.
This caused a mass exodus of moderate users who were tired of being censored by the board's admins, and eventually led to the community falling apart. Overclock.net frequently falls into political spats, when it doesnt the technical discussions always revolve around the same basic talking points because the guys who were deeply knoledgeable about hardware all pissed off when the site started being heavy handed towards them over the use of mean words. NeoGaf began banning people who were negative towards games with certian political leanings and certian creators behind them, causing most gamers interested in legit discussion to leave the site. Then the worst of the censors left to form ResetEra, which has become, in no uncertian terms, a board full of dangerhair fat cat ladies with no life screaming about politics and femenism in games while banning anyone who dares go against the site's hivemind.
Every. Single. Board. that implemented these rules pinkyswore they would not be used to abuse user posts, or were not targeting criticism, but all of them went the same way, every single time. The powers were used to quell overt cynicism, which then became latent cynicism, then "overly harsh, unfair" critcizm, then moderate criticism, ece. Every board that did this either has ceased to exist (the hobbyist forums) as users left for things liek facebook groups and reddit, or became the sites I mentioned, shells of their former selves surviving on the table scraps of donations and ad revenue to stay afloat.
I cant give you the benefit of the doubt, because this has happened a million times before. "toxic" is a very nebulous word, and one that is frequently abused and becomes a constant moving target. TechSpot is no different then any other tech site, and the moderation WILL get out of hand and start driving users away. I know you say that it is only about toxic comments, but based on the warning you have put on your site you consider negative comments to be toxic (if you dont consider negative comments to be toxic, then why warn that negative posts will be moderated instead of toxic ones?), that is a hell of a slippery slope. Huburis in moderation has killed sites far bigger then techspot.
