Well?

It seems the best of all would be a feature enabling each registered user to determine which commenters have high priority in his own view of the site.

Please institute a tiered system. I would like to just read the entertaining commenters, and go into full comment mode only when I want to.

Where's the option that enables commenters to vote trolls off the island?

You should just have two different commenting “stacks” for each post… one viewable by the public but postable and managed by the top-tier, one private stack viewable and postable for all members… you should give the top commenters the ability to choose which stack to send their comments to and the ability to bring comments from the private stack up to the public stack(differentiate them by making them a different color)…

You should just make your friends, green room contributors, and outside people with good blogs top commenters…

This will actually make the private stack feel even more like a chat room and even more intimate…

Hey, why no open registration?! Why are ya locking us out? You have a great site going, why not open up?

Yeah, but, do I get considered for Tier one for defending Allah's right to be an elitist atheist RINO? ;o) I don't comment as much because I can't weed through the garbage on a lot of threads after reopened comments.

Can we appeal a decision if we do not make it to the popular crowd?

“Tier 1″ level of privileged contributors whose comments are “funniest, thoughtful, intelligent, well-argued” and who have proven themselves “engaged, intelligent, humorous, fair-minded, thoughtful, rational, etc.”

Unfortunately, this no longer applies to HA, as it has become nothing but a snarkfest. If the site were like it used to be, where differing opinions were discussed in a rational way without all of the personal insults, it could be an idea. Alas, as it stands now, you would be giving the Freepers a run for their money...