"but I ask that you all refrain from restricting commenting due to petty grievances or to limit discourse"
We've already seen legitimate comments being deleted by a certain moderator no less, who should know better and set a higher standard as an example.
This is just going to be abused by people holding petty grudges tbh.
This is a really bad feature and I will not be using it.
Hell, I have never ever, deleted anybodies comments of any of my photos, even Dor when he used to post complete rubbish, because that is his right to post it tbh!
Anybody can pot whatever they want on my photos and it will never be removed by myself and I will never block anybody!
Honestly, what is this site turning into? No wonder people are leaving in droves.