I can’t stand the state of comments on news websites. If the internet is the great democratizer of content, it’s a horrible place to have an actual conversation with people.
Name-calling runs rampant. Commenters belittle one another. People make up nicknames for politicians — Barack Obummer. John McShame.
What’s the point of hosting this kind of feeding frenzy? To prove that you have readership to support ad dollars? It certainly doesn’t add any value, and it depresses me to think that we can’t be just a bit, well, nicer to one another in our disagreements.
I’d love to see a comment stream that projects thoughtful, respectful debate, and there’s really only one way it’ll happen: we have to use our own names.
I’m not sure how this could technically be implemented, but wouldn’t that be a better conversation? No more “looney libs” and “stupid rethuglicans”. No more contests to see who can leave the wittiest comment about people who’ve died in unfortunate ways. Just grown ups having a talk using their inside voices.
“It’s dehumanizing to have thousands of people passing through our computer screens, so we do things we’d never do if they were sitting next to us.” — A Real Person, A Lot Like You
There is one simple truth to all this. It is that simple truth that drives people to leave horrible on the internet. The simple truth is that nobody has ever been punched in the face by their computer.
http://raykrueger.blogspot.com/ Ray Krueger
…to leave horrible *comments* on the internet. Sorry, I shouldn't leave comments at 6 am. *punch me in the face*
Mom
Anonymous, hateful comments are another type of mob mentality – only the internet allows for a really big mob. Even though people have always sought protection for their bad behavior, the fact that these comments remain in print for so long makes them especially frightening.
Ben McInturff
Spot on Mr. Myler.
http://drewmyler.com/ Drew
Actually, I think “horrible” by itself does a nice job. Too much horrible out there.
Ben McInturff
And I'll be working on a b*@%!-slap via tcp/ip project to resolve this problem soon!
http://jeffjudge.com Jeff Judge
Yep, I agree. Too much horrible out there. The best thing about Twitter and Facebook (aside from a bunch of people seeing you wrote this blog post and jumping in to read it and comment) is that it they're extending their login capabilities to sites so that there's no longer a need to register for a site. I think we'll see a point where more sites start shutting down anonymous comments and force you to login through either a social network, a social commenting system (Disqus, IntenseDebate, etc), or through their own blog software as a last resort. At least I hope this is where content is going…
Mar 31, 2010
I Hate Your Comments
I can’t stand the state of comments on news websites. If the internet is the great democratizer of content, it’s a horrible place to have an actual conversation with people.
Name-calling runs rampant. Commenters belittle one another. People make up nicknames for politicians — Barack Obummer. John McShame.
What’s the point of hosting this kind of feeding frenzy? To prove that you have readership to support ad dollars? It certainly doesn’t add any value, and it depresses me to think that we can’t be just a bit, well, nicer to one another in our disagreements.
I’d love to see a comment stream that projects thoughtful, respectful debate, and there’s really only one way it’ll happen: we have to use our own names.
I’m not sure how this could technically be implemented, but wouldn’t that be a better conversation? No more “looney libs” and “stupid rethuglicans”. No more contests to see who can leave the wittiest comment about people who’ve died in unfortunate ways. Just grown ups having a talk using their inside voices.
It’s true. And it sucks. Someone fix it.
Tags: Comments, News