Matt Honan of Wired.com thinks the time has come to banish comments sections from the Internet. Writing in Wired.com’s Gadget Lab blog, Honan describes the ‘collective delusion’ among online publishers that comments are a necessary component of web content and characterizes active comments moderation as ‘a messy, frustrating and typically thankless affair that involves more time than most people have’. In this short editorial, editor Barnaby Britton explains why we do allow comments, despite the downsides.