Thursday, October 09, 2008

Commentz Korner: Would you delete this one?

[It appeared at 12:01 p.m. today on the Courier-Post site]

Updated at 4:51 p.m. ET. It appears the original comment has now been taken down. Earlier . . .

The story
today in the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, N.J.: "A 14-year-old girl and a 21-year-old man were injured but are expected to recover after being shot in broad daylight Wednesday in the city's Fairview section, according to police. The shooting occurred at about 3:20 p.m. at Alabama and Chesapeake roads just off Yorkship Square. The girl sustained a graze wound to her ear and neck. The man was shot in the leg. Both were hospitalized, but police said their injuries did not appear life-threatening."

The comment by a reader named PleaseGFY: "Grazed her right ear? Damn. Just two or three inches to the left and there'd be one less breeder in that hellhole city. If she is 14, then she is due to deliver the first or her welfare-sucking brood soon."

The question: Will the Courier-Post allow that comment -- and the equally ugly follow-ups -- to remain on its site, given Gannett's stated commitment to all things diverse? Stay tuned!

Earlier: The Cincinnati Enquirer site still offers women that comment on how to deliver blow jobs. How customer service-y is that?!

Got a comment that made it past your editors? Write Commentz Korner from a non-work computer via gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]. See Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

31 comments:

  1. Would you delete that comment? Please elaborate on your yes/no/maybe answer.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, God Yes!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'd delete it and send a TOS warning to the poster. Further, I'd have a staff person intervene in the dialogue, just to give a TOS/decency reminder. And, I'd probably be in favor of running a print editorial with a TOS reminder to all posters.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yeah, I'd kill it and block the poster without warning.

    Fun thing about Pluck: When you block users, they can still post and see their posts, but no one else can. Some people never figure this out - so we're happy AND they're happy.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I would never allowed blogging on that type of story (murders, deaths, shootings). However, I'm not the one in charge. At my location, that type of posting is the norm and 99.9% of the time they not removed. It adds up the page views that everyone wants!

    ReplyDelete
  6. @2:35 wrote: "I would never allowed blogging on that type of story ..."

    Um ... you mean story comments, right? Don't get them confused - there is a difference.

    Unless you're over 50 and don't understand what that difference is. (Unfortunately, these are the people making Internet decisions at my paper.)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Who's going to delete it?

    Our paper has nobody in place to even monitor this stuff. I don't get offended often, honestly, but there are comments on our site daily that are so incredibly far over the line.

    It's like they're just testing to see if anyone is paying attention ... pushing forward (or backward) just a bit more each day to test us.

    ReplyDelete
  8. @2:53 wrote: "Our paper has nobody in place to even monitor this stuff."

    Well, that's your problem. Our staff seems to shrink every week, but we still have a system in place to monitor abuse reports.

    We're not always lightning-quick, but we do check the Pluck admin site pretty regularly throughout the day.

    The tough part is convincing readers that the "report abuse" button can be an effective deterrent against bad posters - but if no one is monitoring the admin site, then that trust from readers is misplaced.

    ReplyDelete
  9. You ought to see the libel posted daily on the unmoderated Topix.net forums, a Gannett joint venture. Call someone a child molester, drug dealer, thief ... have at it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. This is what makes journalism a joke these days. there needs to be people to monitor this stuff but with even more layoffs on the horizon, I don't see that happening. GCI site need to get rid of the readers comments section If the proper monitoring can't be done. That will not happen either because GCI site desperately needs more page views, journalistic ethics are long gone.

    ReplyDelete
  11. 2:39 -- Yes, I meant story comments.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I've said it before, this is what makes our websites an embarressment. If this is what they count on for page views, they are also going to lose people coming to the site - including me.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I lost some valuable sources because of comments that were allowed to linger. I wonder how many businesses just don't want their ads on sites that allow hateful comments.

    ReplyDelete
  14. There's a report abuse button right next to that post.

    If it violates the community's sense of decency, they should click it.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Wondering...many hours later, is that comment still there?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Ever watch any of the comments on USAT.com? Moderating that crap would have to be one of the top thankless jobs in the company.

    ReplyDelete
  17. The BJ instructions on the Cincinnati Enquirer web site were apparently very useful to the missionary-bound in that city. Preliminary Census Bureau data shows a sudden rise in frequency of oral sex among women aged 35 to 49, which happens to match precisely the paper's target demographic. No wonder the Enquirer's VP of marketing was the only department head in Cincy promoted to regional responsibilities.

    ReplyDelete
  18. 2:34 that is awesome. Too bad more Gannett papers didn't make use of that.

    ReplyDelete
  19. @2:39 PM Thank you for pointing that out. I am tired of people making web publishing decisions when they don't understand the Internet.

    If you don't understand the difference between a blog, a blog post or blog entry, and a comment, please stop writing about blogs, posts, and comments, especially if you are writing about them on a blog or comment thread.

    If you don't know the difference between threaded conversation and chat, please don't be in charge of coming up with a branding name for the comment threads that appear at the end of stories.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Wow, a Gannett took down a nasty post. Check out what goes on at my local Gannett:

    "Blow me, Gayl C@@t..Commie Biatch..." (gee, wonder what he said)

    ReplyDelete
  21. """If you don't understand the difference between a blog, a blog post or blog entry, and a comment, please stop writing about blogs, posts, and comments, especially if you are writing about them on a blog or comment thread."""

    Oooh... Nerd intimidation!

    Hope I got that right. Or is it clueless geek?

    Thread, blog, comment...here.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Monitoring forums is the lowest priority at our newspaper, which is one of the larger U.S. Gannett properties.

    Only one person on a stretched out 9-5 shift does it to any degree to speak of.

    If the person horrified by what they see is at my paper, he or she would not be able to imagine what wasn't seen because the moderator removed it. Moderators are the true Unsung Heroes on the front line of all the sociopaths on earth.

    ReplyDelete
  23. It was raised in a previous thread but bears repeating: When Pluck first went up, at least the early newspapers were told reporters would be monitoring (and on occasion moderating, when appropriate) comments readers make on their own stories.

    I get the feeling the poster here who complained about losing sources is a reporter, to whom I'd ask, don't you at least hit "report abuse" and folo thru with managers if you don't see the troubling posts disappear? Have you attempted to reply to these disturbed posters or posted a reminder about TOS?

    I can't fathom why someone who seems like a Gannett employee would make that complaint. It is within every employee's means to make sure something is deleted or to go on and self correct with your own posts.

    ReplyDelete
  24. I see it on my site, and it's gone. Would probably ban the account as well, since the "GFY" in the screen name is probably an acronym advising you to perform a sexual act on yourself. I've been moderating comments long enough now to know that nothing good is coming from that poster.

    ReplyDelete
  25. It's a free country and if its ok for a 14 year old to be pregnant, its ok for someone to have a problem with it. Who are all of you to determine what words should be used for that individual to express his/her anger?

    ReplyDelete
  26. @2:39 PM
    Some people mix up computer terms, and others try to pass off fragments as sentences. I think it's a generational thing maybe. Tolerance goes a long way in any work place.

    ReplyDelete
  27. @6:55:"Tolerance goes a long way in any work place."

    Tolerance is one thing - but if the people making the decisions have no clue, then it affects the entire company's future.

    ReplyDelete
  28. @12:16 AM wrote: "I can't fathom why someone who seems like a Gannett employee would make that complaint. It is within every employee's means to make sure something is deleted or to go on and self correct with your own posts."

    See, but that would take effort.

    I also have little sympathy for people who'd rather sit back and complain rather than do something about it.

    ReplyDelete
  29. @10:44 pm: I agree with much of what you say: I should have hit the report abuse button; that was stupid.

    But please know this: All the papers want to do a better job; I know that. But they can't because they've lost staff in cutbacks.

    With posts like this, I'm trying to show the consequences. I'm not trying to embarrass you guys. I apologize if I did.

    Also, I'm a good journalist and a better copyeditor. I added the correct punctuation to what you wrote above. I believe it should have been: "you old, gay, butt-fucking, faggot-ass, queer."

    ReplyDelete
  30. @11:40 AM
    Yes, you're correct. Printing sentence fragments and other mistakes chip away at a company's bottom line over time. I'd add that distasteful comments that clearly violate TOS agreements do too.

    ReplyDelete
  31. As a reader of the Courier Post and former Asbury Park Press person (1970s way before Gannett) I've been surprised at how vicious some of the reader comments have been -- there have been some especially nasty comments on stories involving teen drink/drive fatalities, tasteless even. And yet they appear on the paper's site.

    I haven't quite figured out which genius thought "engaging in conversation" meant allowing people to spew racism, hatred, obnoxious bad taste.

    Excuse my old-fashioned "standards" but there used to be a time when the Press didn't even REPORT on suicides out of consideration for the family's feelings.

    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."

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.