4/25/2010
Issue Update: Comment review, editing, or learning civil discourse?
Reader comments: Can't live with 'em ...
by Rob ORegan
http://emediavitals.com/blog/17/reader-comments-cant-live-em?utm_source=ABM+Vital+Guide&utm_campaign=bcd800e5a7-nl_vg_abm_04222010_user-generated-content&utm_medium=email
Allowing site visitors to add comments to articles, blogs and other digital content has become accepted practice for most digital content publishers. Reader comments are an effective way to engage a community and increase site “stickiness.” But they can also become, as blogger Peter Scheer notes, a “cesspool” that is “stuffed with the rants and invective of people who have too much time on their hands (and too little gray matter between their ears.)”
Particularly vexing to publishers are comments from readers who flame behind a cloak of anonymity. This is why many media sites are considering new ways to encourage (or require) registration for anyone wishing to add their two cents to an online discussion. (I've been pushing to ban anonymous comments from our site.)
“Anonymity is just the way things are done. It’s an accepted part of the Internet, but there’s no question that people hide behind anonymity to make vile or controversial comments,” Huffington Post’s Arianna Huffington told the New York Times. “I feel that this is almost like an education process. As the rules of the road are changing and the Internet is growing up, the trend is away from anonymity.”
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