Just as the Ventura County Star announced it will mothball reader comments on articles, the Greensboro News-Record says it will -- with some trepidation -- allow readers to post directly on articles.
News-Record Editor John Robinson says the feature will be part of the site's new publishing system.
The N-R wants to go to the next level of reader interactivity even though, as Robinson acknowledges, the site's blogs have received posts that "border on the obscene and the abusive." Only with a willingness to experiment will news web sites figure out the best practices that raise the level of discourse.
At morph: The Media Center Blog, Ken Sands of the Spokesman Review, responding to the Ventura decision, suggests that reader comments shouldn't be enabled unless you've got a system that will promote quality.
I agree with Sands to a point. Do some research so you know what successes and pitfalls others have experienced. But don't let a quest for a perfect system create paralysis. You won't know what level of moderation will be required for your community until you invite the readers to the discussion. Whatever you try at first will require modifications because it either will be too restrictive or too loose. So, try to start with a comment-moderation system that can be changed without much difficulty.
In his blog, the N-R's Robinson points to The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) as another news site that has seen inappropriate comments on articles. The paper has a cautious approach to the display of comments: The home page has a box of "Recent Comments," a good way of letting readers know which articles are attracting discussion. The "Recent Comments" box also appears on article pages in the News section. Rather than display any text from the comments themselves, the box shows the headlines of the articles. Clicking the headlines in the box takes you to the article. At the bottom of each article page is a link to "View Comments," which pops up the reader remarks in a new window, rather than displaying them directly on the article page. Each post has options to "Ignore User" and "Report Post."
So, on the one hand, the site is making an effort to drive readers to articles with comments, but on the other hand is making the reader really work to get to those comments.
One other sign that The Morning Call is making an effort to be transparent: The site had a page that describes the philosophy of the paper's editorial board and includes links to bios on all the board members.
Ha-ha-ha! Directly post on articles! John Robinson can say a lot of things.
http://www.flykoo.com
Posted by: flykoo | Saturday, October 21, 2006 at 01:16 AM