Part of our mission here at Hoodline is to provide our neighbors with a forum to discuss the issues of the day.
In general, our commenters are great. They're able to express their views, even when those views might be critical or negative, without disrespecting each other (or us), and without violating the rules of the road.
Still, there have been a number of incidents lately here on Hoodline where the commenting has devolved to a level we can no longer tolerate. Name-calling, vague threats, and general immaturity are crowding out meaningful discussion, to the detriment of the overall Hoodline community.
We're exploring options for how we can combat this behavior, and since this is a community, we want your input.
Some possible tweaks we're considering include:
- Requiring all commenters to verify their email addresses (no anonymous posting)
- Requiring all commenters to verify their identities using a third-party service, so real names will be displayed and fake accounts will be prevented
- Update our terms to ban comments that add no value or are irrelevant to the topic being discussed
Back in the Haighteration era, we questioned whether we should remove the comments section entirely. The reaction from readers was overwhelmingly negative and underlined the value that a healthy and vibrant comments section adds to a neighborhood-focused site like this.
So, we get it. We just want to ensure that we're striking the right balance between honoring people's freedom of speech and guaranteeing that we're providing a forum that's welcoming for all our readers, not just the loudest few.
If you have an opinion or an idea for how we might encourage better commenting, please let us know below.
