Thoughtful and articulate comments, especially when they are from people with relevant knowledge and experience, greatly enhanced my reading of the Independent. Trolls, spammers, whack-jobs, and other malcontents were allowed by you to post the vilest or most off-topic diatribes, wasting huge amounts of time and space. Why did you allow that to happen?
You only include a couple of letters to the editor in each print addition, so the online comments section provides a vital function for your readers, and the community at large. If you can control the scope and tone of letters to the editor, you can do likewise with the comments section.
Of course it is important to have posting standards in order to maintain a high quality forum, so why didn’t you set higher standards for what you would allow? Yes, it takes some time and money to “police” the comments by eliminating posts and posters that refuse to follow basic guidelines. Many of the online sites i follow have excellent comment sections, which greatly enhances my understanding of an issue. They all follow similar guidelines.