Commenting and the new Phatic Communication

The links I'm writing about below really relate more to our last class, but I think we can think of them in therms of the new phatic communication.  Newly, we think of this "phatic communication" of light, social only communication.  Recently, there was a move at Gawker.com to begin to "curate" comments among select users rather than allowing anyone and everyone to communicate.

You can check it out in this article where Nick Denton of Gawker.com and Jezebel.com fame takes in a recent SXSWi panel about commenting in the new age:

“The most interesting comments, they don’t come from people with Klout scores. They don’t come from people with a history on our sites,” Denton said.

The ultimate goal of the new system, Denton said, would be to attract people like American Apparel’s Dov Charney or NBC’s Brian Williams — who are at the center of news on Gawker sites — to chime in themselves." (click here for source)

For more on the story, check out CNN.com's article here.

What do you think?  Should comments be curated to make the message "smarter" or should they be allowed for anonymous, free posting for social purpose?