Comments on: No winners in online comment debate

By: Mandy

Mandy — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:59:17 +0000

Is it, though? I know quite a few people with fake Facebook identities (myself included). It certainly isn’t foolproof, either. Short of entering your banking or credit card info, I don’t see a surefire way to make people be honest about who they are online.

We have been working on Facebook Connect on our site for awhile now – as have most sites. It’ll be nice if/when we get it up, but I don’t think it will be a cure for this particular issue.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:03:23 +0000

Facebook Connect is one way to ensure that commenters use “real” identities. It’s a big step, but it’s an option.

By: Mandy

Mandy — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:56:24 +0000

I know – definitely, I know. So much of what goes into successful comments is about the community creating its own standards and policing itself to some extent – and from what I can tell that just doesn’t seem to be happening. Lots of horrible stuff never gets replies in opposition or gets reported as abusive…maybe the other commenters don’t see what’s wrong with expressing views like that? I don’t know.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:39:17 +0000

I love to post comments on blogs, but after reading some of the stuff on Cincinnati.com as well as WCPO, WLWT, and WKRC.com it really makes me question the people in this community.

Some of the stuff is so hateful to the poor, democrats, blacks, whites etc.

I Read a horrible story about a family who’s house burnt and a couple of kids die, and all anyone can say is what kind of mother doesn’t die in the house with her kids? What a horrible thought to have in the wake of a tragedy. I just don’t get it.

By: Jason M

Jason M — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:56:46 +0000

I think it’s worth noting that Fark, Reddit, Digg et al aren’t the same thing as newspaper websites, and that they’re designed pretty specifically to house community debate, comments, and so on.

For me, the jury’s still out on whether comments on newspaper websites are useful in the first place. Having a comment feature attached to a newspaper story can change the dynamic of a specific story pretty significantly, and I don’t know that that’s what a newspaper wants.

Not that I have any say, or expect to–but most of the time, I don’t read ‘em, and I can’t say that I miss them if they, you know, magically disappeared.