Friday, March 21, 2008

Commentz Corner: Now I'm the big dope

I've just switched commenting back to the way it was when I first launched Gannett Blog: I'll now read each comment before allowing it to be public. I've railed against overly coarse, undermoderated commenting on Gannett websites, so I'm going to nail myself when the same thing happens here. Since I opened up commenting two weeks ago, readers published a couple comments that were unnecessarily personal and mean in their attacks on private individuals and on management (yup: management). I deleted them just minutes after they appeared -- but that was still a few minutes longer than I liked.
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8 comments:

  1. Anonymous3/22/2008 8:34 AM

    I read the comments and discussions at postcrescent.com in Appleton. It's interesting to me that people get upset when the moderators (very rarely... maybe 100 out of 60,000 posts) step in because of name-calling.

    More of note is the number of (non-employee) defenders the paper has. The general gist of those who approve of moderation is always, "he who owns the playground, makes the rules."

    Your playground Jim. Your rules!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous3/22/2008 11:53 AM

    I think you understand now how hard it is to monitor comments. Just think how much time it would take to do the same thing at a site where they're getting hundreds to thousands of comments an hour.

    So either big media sites can allow comments to be posted without previewing them, not allow comments at all, or pay several people to monitor comments without doing anything else.

    For something that has little revenue attached to it, I think Gannett has made the best decision. I'd rather have two more reporters out covering the news than have two people sitting at a computer monitoring comments on our website.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jim3/22/2008 12:35 PM

    I like the New York Times' solution: It limits comments to only as many stories as its staff of about 12 full-time editors can handle. Under its system, editors read each comment before they get published. The downside, obviously, is fewer comments. But the upside: Comments that DO appear are on-topic, and less coarse.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous3/23/2008 6:22 PM

    indystar.com just switched to a new comment program with registration required. for now, at least, the troll tally is way down.

    wonder how long it will be before mgmt decides it can't live w/the sharp decline in clicks and lets the trolls back in.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous3/25/2008 7:06 AM

    Jim,
    You are a sell-out! Whimp! What kind of journalist are you? Did dubow put you on his payroll?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous3/25/2008 7:07 AM

    Oh, please! Gimme a break. Let the people have at it when it comes to management. We have no other venue when it comes to venting.

    And I'm of the opinion that when a manager is named, he/she deserves everything they get!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous3/25/2008 10:00 PM

    Most comments that are meant to be mean not insightful, often come from people who have their own short comings that they are too afraid to face.

    Jim- I think you are doing the right thing people come here for insight (and maybe a little gossip). They do not come here to listen to adults act like 12 year old school yard bullies.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous3/26/2008 7:57 PM

    hey anonymous

    Speaking of 12 year olds, shortcomings is one word. Now THAT'S insightful! You probably don't work in the newsroom.

    ReplyDelete

Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."

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