Life & fun · February 25, 2026
Respectify – A comment moderator that teaches people to argue better
My partner, Nick Hodges, and I, David Millington, have been on the Internet for a very long time -- since the Usenet days. We’ve seen it all, and have long been frustrated by bad comments, horrible people, and discouraging discussions. We've also been around places where the discussion is wonderful and productive. How to get more of the latter and less of the former? Current moderation tools just seem to focus on deletion and banning. Wouldn’t it be helpful to encourage productive discussion and teach people how to discuss and argue (in the debate sense) better? A year ago we started…
In plain words
Respectify is a comment moderation tool that helps foster productive online discussions by teaching users to argue more effectively. Rather than simply deleting or banning problematic comments, it suggests improvements to help commenters avoid logical fallacies, tone issues, and irrelevant arguments. Designed for community managers and online spaces, it aims to encourage good-faith debate and reduce hostile interactions while helping people communicate their points more persuasively.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
My partner, Nick Hodges, and I, David Millington, have been on the Internet for a very long time -- since the Usenet days. We’ve seen it all, and have long been frustrated by bad comments, horrible people, and discouraging discussions. We've also been around places where the discussion is wonderful and productive. How to get more of the latter and less of the former? Current moderation tools just seem to focus on deletion and banning. Wouldn’t it be helpful to encourage productive discussion and teach people how to discuss and argue (in the debate sense) better? A year ago we started building Respectify to help foster healthy communication. Instead of just deleting bad-faith comments, we suggest better, good-faith ways to say what folks are trying to say. We help people avoid: * Logical fallacies (false dichotomy, strawmen, etc.) * Tone issues (how others will read the comment) * Relevance to the actual page/post topic * Low-effort posts * Dog whistles and coded language The commenter gets an explanation of what's wrong and a chance to edit and resubmit. It's moderation + education in one step. We want, too, to automate the entire process so the site owner can focus on content and not worry about moderation at all. And over time, comment by comment, quietly coach better thinking. Our main website has an interactive demo: https://respectify.ai. As the demo shows, the system is completely tunable and adjustable, from "most anything goes" to "You need to be college debate level to get by me". We hope the result is better discussions and a better Internet. Not too much to ask, eh? We love the kind of feedback this group is famous for and hope you will supply some!
Does the same job
all alternatives →- RCReveddit.com: Improving online discourse with transparent moderation2022 · cantsayanything.win · ▲180
Hi HN, this talk represents a summary of my work over the last four years on addressing shadow moderation with Reveddit. Let me know what you think, good or bad, and I'll do my best to answer. What is shadow moderation? It is any action taken against your content that you aren't told about and aren't able to detect while logged in. I focus on Reddit comments since every single removal is shadow removed— removed comments are shown to you as if they're not. You can try this for yourself on, https://www.reveddit.com…
- WCWatch ChatGPT debate itself on a given topic2023 · opinionate.io · ▲94
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