Comments & Web 2.0
July 13th, 2008I confess an addiction to reading news stories online. I spend far too much time every day browsing the New York Times, the Honolulu Advertiser, Newsweek, Time, and a few other websites… time that could be spent a little more productively, no doubt.
What I really can’t figure out is why I still glance at the comments that often accompany articles. The NY Times is the exception. They must edit the comments they get, because most of them seem reasonably intelligent. Newsweek, Time, and the Honolulu Advertiser though… ick. Glancing at their comments generally feels like tip-toeing through sewer water. Ninety-percent of it seems composed of insults and assorted name-calling, unreasoned hostility, baseless gossip, or diatribes that don’t address in any way the subject of the article (if we can assume some intentionality, I have to suppose these last are aimed at an earlier commentator, though I don’t wade that far in).
And yet I look! I guess I’m always hoping to see that things have improved, but that never happens.
I have some scenarios in my head about the people posting. At the Advertiser I think of those two old guys from the muppets, who sit in the theater audience lobbing insults at everything that happens on the stage – (some of you might be old enough to remember the muppets…) – only at the Advertiser the hecklers are a lot nastier. They come across as people who just don’t have lives, pitching shots because they don’t have anything else to do.
At the big magazines it feels like a different crowd. Here there just has to be a huge population of political hacks whose job it is (paid no doubt) to slime and smear.
Web 2.0 may still be a big deal, but for me it serves as a great demonstration of the value of a good editor.
Of course none of this is intended to discourage people from commenting here… after all, I get to approve all comments before they appear!
Update: same subject, much more funny writing:
“Local Idiot To Post Comment On Internet”
Posted on: Sunday, July 13th, 2008 at 7:10 am
Categories: Meanderings.
July 13th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
When there’s no filtering mechanism, and no instant social feedback from people in a forum, the quality degenerates rapidly. Sites like Slashdot avoid it through group moderation; I expect a mix of universal identification (like OpenID) and reputation systems will eventually reduce the noise factor for people who want to ignore it.
July 16th, 2008 at 12:10 am
Here’s a theory on that… (sorry about the language)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Arcade_(webcomic)#John_Gabriel.27s_Greater_Internet_Fuckwad_Theory
July 27th, 2008 at 5:43 am
I started to make a comment several times but I felt like commenting about a blog about comments could be a little tricky. I didn’t want to sound like the muppets.
My wife started a blog on Today.com recently. She writes about activities on the Oregon coast and about our daily lives, etc. It’s all pretty humdrum but I love reading her stuff because she is a good writer and I know she enjoys doing it. No one has ever looked at her blog other than me and a friend, who got mad right away because she gave a surf report about our favorite break. I’m glad he didn’t make a comment on it.
I think there are a lot of good writers out there that really don’t know what to write about so they comment on whatever you are writing about. That’s what comments are all about, it gives us something to say.
It’s up to you now to lead us in our conversation, otherwise we don’t have anything to say, or we can start our own blog and hope you will come there to talk to us.
August 5th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Comments that add to the conversation are always welcome! To be honest though, I don’t tend to comment myself. Forever a lurker….