Should we be the gatekeeper of online story comments?
I posed that question to readers in my column last week.
The response was overwhelming. The column garnered more than 335 online comments. Another couple of dozen readers
e-mailed me and a few wrote formal letters to the editor.
Those on both sides of the debate made great arguments for why we should or should not act as the gatekeeper of opinions, and whether commenters should remain anonymous.
ADVERTISEMENT
I won't get into all those reasons here, but I'll touch on some as I explain how we plan to handle online comments from this day forward.
Suffice to say, we won't make everyone happy. We think we've found a reasonable approach.
Starting today, online comments:
Will only be available on certain stories. How we choose those stories will be subjective. We intend to allow comments on stories likely to garner public debate or discussion.
Must be approved by The Forum before they will appear online. Until today, comments flowed directly onto our Web site. We only considered removing posts after the fact if another commenter complained about the content using the "report a violation" tool.
This new approach will delay the time between comments being made and comments being seen.
Will not be available on letters to the editor or longer non-Forum opinion columns. We will continue to allow comments on our newspaper's editorials and opinion columns we produce.
We don't publish anonymous letters to the editor. We don't think it's right for those who agree or disagree with those opinions to anonymously respond.
- Will remain anonymous.
This may be hard to understand, given the above rationale. But it's actually very simple: There is absolutely no practical way for us to verify that a writer is who they say they are. Like it or not, the Web is an anonymous medium.
Why the overall change in approach?
In short, several bad apples spoiled the bunch.
As debate became less civilized, more and more readers told us they turned away from the comments. Many said what was once a cherished part of their day - either reading comments or making comments - had turned into a waste of their time because of the low and petty level of discourse.
We respect people's time. That's a core journalistic value.
With this change, we hope to restore good debate and at the same time raise the level of participation by pre-screening out that which wastes your time.
ADVERTISEMENT
Von Pinnon is editor of The Forum. Reach him at (701) 241-5579.
