YouTube comments are some of the trolliest on the web, but you don't need an extra add-on to block them—just use Adblock Plus. More »

Chrome: Lifehacker reader Benjamin Dykstra, a.k.a. jetRink, has published a nifty Chrome extension that notifies you when you get new followers or replies to your comments on the whole family of Gawker sites. Another handy feature is the ability to save discussion threads.More »

Chrome: If you're a heavy commenter on other web sites, it can get hard keeping track of it all. Chrome extension Comment Save logs each comment you make around the web so you can check up on them. More »

Chrome: We've shown you many ways to avoid the less appealing folk on the internet, but if you find some communities are just too troll-infested, Comment Blocker will hide all comments on a specific site with a quick shortcut. More »

So you just hunkered down to read a glorious thousand-word epic about why the Web loves cats -- only to find yourself staring at hundreds of comments which ruined your reading experience with their harshness. If only you'd had some sort of filter for your browser which could hide those sections so you could read in peace!

There's shutup.css, which automatically blocks comments on every site it supports -- but for Chrome users, Comment Blocker is a much more flexible option. It not only blocks comment sections on most sites, but it also allows you to whitelist or blacklist URLs -- either individually, using the black and white buttons above, or by creating filter patterns in the Comment Blocker options.

If you run a WordPress blog (or more than one!) and use Google Chrome, you might be interested in a handy new extension called WordPress Checker. It keeps track of unmoderated and spam comments, so you can approve or delete them. It puts a little WordPress icon next to your search bar, with a badge for the number of comments you currently have to deal with.

There's another, slightly more popular extension that you might also want to keep an eye on: HelloLogic's WordPress Comments Notifier. It doesn't support multiple accounts, the way WordPress Checker does, but the developers promise that future versions will do so.

WordPress Checker Chrome extension monitors your blog's comments originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 11 Apr 2010 15:00:00 EST.

Chrome: You can use "Just Don't Look" as a strategy for avoiding less-than-helpful web comments, but your eyes will often defeat you. No Comments elegantly removes the comments section from many sites, but lets you turn the worthy comments back on.

On the basis of its chosen blacklist alone, No Comments is noteworthy—it includes a good number of sites where comments can, in one way or another, run out of control. Full disclosure, of course—Lifehacker, and all the other Gawker Media blogs, are included in that list. If our interactive portion is able to win you back over, though, you can turn the comments back on by hitting the toggle button that appears in your address bar whenever No Comments is doing its thing.

No Comments is a free download, works wherever Chrome does.

No Comments [Google Chrome extension gallery via The Awl]

Chrome: If you've ever wanted to see what people are saying about a web page you're visiting beyond the site's own comments, Chrome extension Twitter Reactions will show you the most recent tweets that are talking about the page.

The idea isn't unlike other universal commenting systems, like Google Sidewiki—but instead of just seeing the comments of Google Toolbar users, you can see what the entire Twitterverse is saying about the page that you're on. It takes a bit of filtering with all the retweets or simple linking going on on Twitter, but it's definitely interesting to see what people are saying beyond the site's integrated comments and who's linking to it—especially if it's your own site or blog (you might be surprised how many people have linked to you on Twitter!).