It's partly strategic. The presence of a moderation comment like that in a thread often seems to evoke higher-quality comments. I'd bet that it such had an effect in this case—the thread improved almost immediately—but who knows.

You're right that I should have written something longer and not in haste. But I'm a bit surprised by the strong reaction to that one; it's atypical. Perhaps to some readers it felt like a disparagement of their own view on religion—which of course it was not.

Sorry if I was catty. It was a bit of cold water in the face, is all.

Personally I like to avoid such threads. You can't really be understood, whatever you contribute.

I don't think you were catty, and you were far from the only person who had an adverse reaction to my comment. I've learned something. So thanks!

Yeah a really disparaging comment coming from a mod. What is the problem. Sure there is some bickering, but it's falling to the bottom.

A lot of bickering falls to the bottom because moderators downweight it. I wish that weren't so, because it's a lot of work.

I'm sorry your comment confuses me. Isn't it us users that downweight comments with our votes? I thought you reacted on flags and heavy downvotes.

I know you do a lions share of work dang, but I think you were a little to fast here. Good comments were being posted (and pushed below you comment) as you wrote that.

For sure, users downweight (and up-weight!) comments. That's the most important factor. But moderators also downweight subthreads, for example if they're off topic. It's a combo of the two.

Same for stories: the ranking is determined by votes, flags, software, and moderation. Users are the most important factor, but alas not a sufficient one. Without moderation, the system gets into unstable states and can't stay within its mandate.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html