Newspapers move away from Anon Comments- Hooray!

[Paploo the Ewok]

Or Hooray???

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/technology/12comments.html?src=twt&twt=nytimes

....is it wrong I think this is a good thing? Read any newspapers comment section, and it's a mound of horribleness. I doubt it'll get rid of all the stupid stuff [real names does not equal no stupidity- hello there facebook!], but it'll probably get rid of a lot of it, and make it easier to monitor this stuff. Great article, and interesting to think about it's implications regarding online forums. What if comics journalism applied this rule?

Good quote here-
"“People who might have something useful to say are less willing to participate in boards where the tomatoes are being thrown.” "

I know a lot of people who don't participate in forums anymore for this very reason.

Mind you, I can also see the privacy concerns involved in this. Still, I know I take a bloggers or journalists opinion more seriously than random forum peoples in some cases

[Ship]

I hate the comments sections of news sites.

They're either full of the most vile, hateful right-wing crap or the most vile, hateful left-wing crap.

The worst thing is that they're like a car crash. You can't help but look.

[dupont2005]

I think it's a good thing, and no privacy issue at all. The nuts are welcome to keep their mouths shut if their opinions are so hateful and bigoted that they wouldn't want anyone to trace their words back to them.

[shrike]

I'm sorry, but I find many of them hilarious.

[Corrina]

Old-style media has NO idea what to do with comments and how to moderate them.

This is their public face to the world and they're screwing it up.* Anyone with any experience dealing with public forums could have told them anonymous comments should never have been allowed.

::shakes head::

It's not like newspapers would have allowed anonymous letters to the editor to be printed. This is no different.

*And, yeah, DC boards, I'm looking at you too.

[Infra-Man]

Wut a bunch of commie immigrant liberul garbage!!!! Their taking away hour freedums n trying to track wear we live!!! Ware r they're burth certificuts, huh?!?! RON PAUL!!!!!!


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[40footwolf]

The comments section of basically any publication from the New York Times to Cracked.com to Yahoo! News is a wellspring of shit-stupid half-thoughts, musings and ignorance, so any attempt to cut down on that is okay by my book.

[thehod]

It's not like newspapers would have allowed anonymous letters to the editor to be printed. This is no different.

That's not entirely true. I've seen many letters to newspapers that show "Name and address withheld by request." after letters.

Also newspapers are not beyond printing fake letters to stir up a little controversy, so I can understand why they may not be that bothered by stupid and outrageous comments on thier sites.

[Paploo the Ewok]

*And, yeah, DC boards, I'm looking at you too.

Does DC's boards have anonymous posters? With no actual accounts? I've only heard bad things about them, but that does sound pretty horrible [been on Marvel's onsite forum- suprisingly chipper stuff, in contrast]

Anyhoo, I imagine there'd be a lot less name-calling for having an opinion if people used their real names. Corrina- do you think CBR would ever do something like that? If not, I'm still glad it's all moderated. It makes me feel safe about expressing opionions, even if they're unpopular ones. The horribly virtiolic nature of newspaper comments just makes me run away once I scroll past the end of an article.

[Corrina]

That's not entirely true. I've seen many letters to newspapers that show "Name and address withheld by request." after letters.

Also newspapers are not beyond printing fake letters to stir up a little controversy, so I can understand why they may not be that bothered by stupid and outrageous comments on thier sites.

Yes, but in that case, the newspapers *know* the name and address of the person.

I sincerely doubt that the newspapers have much beyond an IP address for comments posted online. Perhaps not even that if they don't require registration on their site to post a comment.

[Corrina]

Does DC's boards have anonymous posters? With no actual accounts? I've only heard bad things about them, but that does sound pretty horrible [been on Marvel's onsite forum- suprisingly chipper stuff, in contrast]

Anyhoo, I imagine there'd be a lot less name-calling for having an opinion if people used their real names. Corrina- do you think CBR would ever do something like that? If not, I'm still glad it's all moderated. It makes me feel safe about expressing opionions, even if they're unpopular ones. The horribly virtiolic nature of newspaper comments just makes me run away once I scroll past the end of an article.

I highly, highly, highly doubt CBR would ever actually go toward real names, though it does have a policy that if you want a name change from an alias, you have to go with your real name.

No, the DC boards need moderation. Cutting down on the drecky comments would encourage more creator interaction, which is the thing that's most likely to drive up traffic. Look how fast the WW forum here took off because Gail was involved and pulled in a lot of other creators too.

As it is, it's more like a free-for-all. That's not a good image to present to the public.

[KevinTBrown]

There was a rather infamous lawsuit filed here in the Chicago area last year where an anonymous person posted a defamatory comment against the 15-year old son of a village trustee. It's been a fairly nasty case. I believe it's still under appeal.

LINK 1 (http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/10/woman-seeks-online-controls-over-comments.html) & LINK 2 (http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/11/trustee-may-learn-identify-of-anonymous-internet-poster.html).

[Romero]

The comments section of our newspaper's site is always filled with hateful garbage (i.e. every Latino person in every news article MUST be an illegal immigrant).

I also see a lot of people post claiming to be friends/relatives of someone that the article might be about.