I wish sites would just disable commenting altogether, at least on certain topics. That's what CBC up here does on anything that's in any way related to race, gender, climate, first nations, etc.
I eventually switched to registration-required, but in a way that no one noticed. But the other feature I added was flagging particular conversations as requiring a higher privilege level to post. Regular contributors can request a privilege upgrade to participate. This has helped.
The Canadian Broadcasting Company: https://cbc.ca
While it's a TV station, and a set of radio stations, they also provide a news website.
> up here
That would be Canada. Like Americans, many of us assume we're talking to Americans when writing online.