Fifteen Web Principles
The BBC has posted their 15 Web Principles, and they're good stuff. One in particular is, I think, very good advice:
14. Link to discussions on the web, don't host them: Only host web-based discussions where there is a clear rationale
Many news sites have gotten all collaborative of late, encouraging viewers to post comments on stories. These usually fall into one of two traps:
Either they moderate, and modereate so heavily that even a hot current story only has a few generic comments, which doesn't hurt, but doesn't really add any value..
Or they create a forum for the crazies that just make their site look bad.
On any given topic you can bet there's a good discussion going on out there somewhere; the best service you can provide is to find it and link to it.