premiersoupir: @Pedro: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echo_chamber_%28media%29
“Regarding this condition arising in online communities, participants may find their own opinions constantly echoed back to them, and in doing so reinforce a certain sense of truth that resonates with individual belief systems.”  

Thank you for the clarification.

I agree that could happen to some extent, but I do feel the more active members of the blog have way too different tastes and opinions to fall victim of that. As Jay said, the community is very varied.

but no, we won’t fall victim to that. We’re only going to remove the trouble makers, ie: those who start personal attacks and/or flame other members for no reason. Other than that, we still have a widely varied community. Forcing membership won’t affect that at all. Anyone can still comment, they just have to be registered to do it now.

premiersoupir: Hey Tosh, are you considering opening comments back up to the public after PSN comes back online? I appreciate the trollicide at the moment, but I wonder if down the road the move might foster an echo chamber effect.  

No, this will be more a permanent thing