Slog
News & ArtsWednesday, July 14, 2010
Teh Internets Today in Stupid Comment Wrangling Ideas
Posted by Paul Constant on Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 11:25 AM
Want to write a comment on The Sun Chronicle's website? Pay The Sun Chronicle.
Apparently the news staff had become so sick of riling commenters that it killed its comments system completely back in April. After months of mulling over his options, publisher Oreste P. D'Arconte has decided that the best way to enforce rules in comments is to rid them of anonymity. The best way to be sure that users are using their real names? Charge them a one-time payment of $0.99 and make them use a valid credit card, of course!
This will not save journalism.
1
Blizzard tried a similar thing and their fanatically loyal fan base freaked out. Who does The Sun Chronicle think they are?
http://www.internetevolution.com/author.…
http://www.internetevolution.com/author.…
2
Um... same price as an ap, and if it's a website you go to a lot, and one where you comment constantly, it doesn't seem to dear to me. I think it might be a good idea...
3
IZ MY RIGHT AS AMERICAN TO SAY MOTHER FUCK U DAN SAVADGE!!! FREE OF CHARGE!!!
Actually, based on the average comment on newspaper websites (slog excluded, of course), I'd like to see them cost something on the order of fifty or sixty bucks...they're all pretty horrible.
Actually, based on the average comment on newspaper websites (slog excluded, of course), I'd like to see them cost something on the order of fifty or sixty bucks...they're all pretty horrible.
4
My tiny hometown newspaper just did the same thing a few weeks ago. Now that there is no anonymous commenting, the comments are actually civil (instead of repeated rantings about how the illegals are ruining everything -- California farm town newspaper) but there are about 95% fewer comments.
5
good idea--the comments on news sites are the worst we have to offer as a species. the less anonymous sniping the better!
8
I agree with @3 and @4. Daily newspaper comment sections are home to the lowest forms of human life. You'd have to pay ME a lot more than 99 cents to read the comments at the Seattle Times. 99 bucks an hour, maybe.
9
My hometown paper started comments years ago, and very briefly it seemed like a good idea. Then the right wing trolls started up. They really made no effort to reign them in, and it is just a cesspool now. I am far less likely to visit the site, and if I do I rarely if ever check the comments. On the bright side, the page view counts have to be up because the trolls keep refreshing the page.
I firmly believe you have to keep a tight grip on the comments, and I support any method of doing so. I like when Slog went to hiding unregistered comments. It made the place a little nicer.
My favorite forum now is one where any mention of politics is immediately deleted and the writer given a warning. A few offenses will get you banned. Insulting people or being a dick will get you banned. The people stay on the forum's topic and we have a great change of ideas. Thousand of posts a day and everybody stays civil.
I firmly believe you have to keep a tight grip on the comments, and I support any method of doing so. I like when Slog went to hiding unregistered comments. It made the place a little nicer.
My favorite forum now is one where any mention of politics is immediately deleted and the writer given a warning. A few offenses will get you banned. Insulting people or being a dick will get you banned. The people stay on the forum's topic and we have a great change of ideas. Thousand of posts a day and everybody stays civil.
10
Geez, in the old days if you wanted to post in the "comments" section you had to write it down on a piece of paper (every time!) and then pay someone (every time!) to carry it to the newspaper's office and then people who worked there would vote on which ones would get posted in the "Letters To The Editor" page.
12
A political blog I read recently went to a commenting system where you have to have a Facebook account to register an account, and your account name is your Facebook account's name (i.e., you have to use your real name). I don't mind it all that much for that site, but it wouldn't work for most other sites I think.
Commenting around here works pretty well these days. We'll see what I think once the mid-terms get closer, but for now it's pretty good...
Commenting around here works pretty well these days. We'll see what I think once the mid-terms get closer, but for now it's pretty good...
13
Here's an idea. First, charge somethig small per comment - say a nickel. But with each comment include a "delete" button, and charge $1 per deletion. I can imagine trolls deleting each other's comments left and right, earning serious money for the paper. Ooh, or for $10 let people add a "this commenter is a moron" tag to someone else's name and another $5 to remove it.
14
Or, Stranger can go all web 2.0. I'm rather fond of the very simple system at Techdirt.com:
http://techdirt.com/articles/20100713/10…
Good sample post. Threading makes it insanely easy to follow discussions; the three buttons allow for modding up/down of comments.
http://techdirt.com/articles/20100713/10…
Good sample post. Threading makes it insanely easy to follow discussions; the three buttons allow for modding up/down of comments.
15
@9:
What you're supporting here is not polite discussion, but the complete absence of discussion.
My favorite forum now is one where any mention of politics is immediately deleted and the writer given a warning. A few offenses will get you banned. Insulting people or being a dick will get you banned. The people stay on the forum's topic and we have a great change of ideas. Thousand of posts a day and everybody stays civil.
What you're supporting here is not polite discussion, but the complete absence of discussion.
16
Newspaper should defuse the $.99 charge by letting users choose a charity and then match the donation. You pay $1 to comment, charity of your choice gets a $2 donation.
17
@13: Could we have a button to hide a specific user's comments? I'll pay a metric fuckton to hide Will's comments permanently.
18
@15 Depends. If the forum's topic is scrapbooking or something, then all they're doing is keeping it on topic.
19
@1 ftw. The funny thing is RealID doesn't work.
@17 use greasemonkey u lazy fuck. I have to read your crap.
@17 use greasemonkey u lazy fuck. I have to read your crap.
20
@1 I immediately thought of Blizzard also. One of the Bliz CMs posted his real name in defense of the policy, and within hours fans had posted links to his Facebook and twitter, photos of him, names of his family members, his home address and even a photo thanks to google maps. He deleted his accounts and Blizzard has since reversed their decision to show full names on their forums.
21
@19 The difference being that TVDinner does not insist on commenting on every single Slog post ever, regardless of whether he/she has anything useful or relevant to say. That is a significant difference.
23
@21 I just comment on the ones you read. Try reading more of the music threads or most of the foodie stuff that I rarely comment on.
As an experiment, I tried not commenting on some topics for a few days, and noticed that people didn't comment on a lot of local items instead. So I add to the discourse - the existence of a comment tends to cause others to comment.
Fascinating to watch, actually. You're so gullible - all they have to do is throw certain phrases into the title and you react.
As an experiment, I tried not commenting on some topics for a few days, and noticed that people didn't comment on a lot of local items instead. So I add to the discourse - the existence of a comment tends to cause others to comment.
Fascinating to watch, actually. You're so gullible - all they have to do is throw certain phrases into the title and you react.
25
Will points out that he doesn't comment on everything, by posting three of 25 comments in this thread alone... I'm sure that number will rise.
27
I love the script jade gave to me the other day (hiding registered commenters). I haven't hidden Will yet, but nothing can be ruled out.
TVDinner, here's what I use: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/4858…
TVDinner, here's what I use: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/4858…
30
@23, "I add to the discourse" -- that's the funniest thing you've ever written. The only thing you add to the discourse is excrement.
31
@27 thank you so much for that. There is one person I've wanted to block from my sight for some time.
32
Oh wow, I just installed the greasemonkey script to filter Will and the internet already feels like a better place. Now all I need is something to filter the final unnecessary (usually marxist) last paragraph from Charles's posts.
33
Yeah I like this. A good news site should moderate the comments, useless comments (Hate and racism, sexism, insults) don't have a place in the discourse of the news.
If I were the editor I too would be FED UP moderating all the racist, sexist, ass-stupid people that frequent my site. SO I would charge money, the thing nobody wants to give the news.
Or I guess you could just get a filter to deny comments with bad words.
If I were the editor I too would be FED UP moderating all the racist, sexist, ass-stupid people that frequent my site. SO I would charge money, the thing nobody wants to give the news.
Or I guess you could just get a filter to deny comments with bad words.
Advertisement
Most Commented on Slog
-
It's Spring! Who's Ready for Street Harassment? by Cienna Madrid
-
New Gun Enthusiast... by Dan Savage
-
SL Letter of the Day: Gonna Boil My Laptop After Answering This One by Dan Savage
-
America Doesn't Care About Black People by Charles Mudede
-
Bigot Florist Files Countersuit by Dominic Holden
-
US Military Grants Itself the Power to Police American Streets and "Quell" "Civil Disturbances" by Brendan Kiley
-
SL Letter of the Day: Living Discomfortably by Dan Savage
-
Slog Super Poll: Who Should Be Mayor? by Dominic Holden
-
Black Market Elimination Fail: Draft Pot Rules Call for Ban on Hash and Hash Oil by Ben Livingston
-
Tim Burgess Quits the Mayor's Race by Dominic Holden
Stranger Personals
The Stranger
RSSSeattle Art & Performance Quarterly
A complete guide to Seattle's current art, film, dance, and theater season.
Facebook
Twitter
Comments (33) RSS