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MetaFilter. You have to pay $5 to post comments, and the comments are formatted in such a way as to discourage trolling, long digressions, and other annoying Internet comment features. The material is usually not amazingly interesting to me, but the community is very pleasant.

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MetaFilter has remained pleasant for years. Turns out $5 is a big enough hurdle to keep it sane.

It's the same with The Something Awful Forums. It is $10 to join, and it really helps keep the trolls out. One of the best communities on the web.

What? SA has possibly the worst community on the web. It keeps people out alright, but not trolls.

I think you might be conflating the terms "troll" and "asshole." If you show up to a subforum on SA and start actually trolling people by posting spam or a bunch of NSFL images or something, you'll get banned pretty much instantly.

That's not trolling, that's vandalism. Trolling is posting things for the sole purpose of inciting flamewars, or getting people to believe you were serious and react with disproportionate fervour.

I'm not sure I'd call it an HN alternative, but I think you're right, it's generally nice around there, and well run. I guess my point here is I don't read mefi for the same reason I read HN.

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