We're big believers in free speech here at Haighteration.
Aside from exteme cases (hate speech, spam, etc.), we have a policy of letting our readers say whatever they'd like in the comments section that accompanies each story.
Should that change?
Last month, the New York Times ran an opinion piece by one of the authors of a recent study. The study examined whether the "nastiness" of internet comments -- not necessarily their content or accuracy, just their tone -- affected how readers perceived a story. The conclusion was that "uncivil comments not only polarized readers, but they often changed a participant's interpretation of the news story itself." Often, our readers leave thoughtful, constructive comments. But not always. And the bigger our readership gets, the more concerned we are that our comments section could devolve into something approaching that of... shudder... SFGate. Or, worse, Yahoo. Still, it's hard to imagine a neighborhood blog without vibrant community discussion, or at least the promise thereof. So, options: 1. Remove the comments section entirely 2. Have some sort of moderated comments, where only the ones we deem worthy (?) actually get published 3. Keep things as they are 4. Some solution we haven't thought of yet We realize the irony, but if you have an opinion on this issue, do let us know in the comments, won't you?
Last month, the New York Times ran an opinion piece by one of the authors of a recent study. The study examined whether the "nastiness" of internet comments -- not necessarily their content or accuracy, just their tone -- affected how readers perceived a story. The conclusion was that "uncivil comments not only polarized readers, but they often changed a participant's interpretation of the news story itself." Often, our readers leave thoughtful, constructive comments. But not always. And the bigger our readership gets, the more concerned we are that our comments section could devolve into something approaching that of... shudder... SFGate. Or, worse, Yahoo. Still, it's hard to imagine a neighborhood blog without vibrant community discussion, or at least the promise thereof. So, options: 1. Remove the comments section entirely 2. Have some sort of moderated comments, where only the ones we deem worthy (?) actually get published 3. Keep things as they are 4. Some solution we haven't thought of yet We realize the irony, but if you have an opinion on this issue, do let us know in the comments, won't you?
