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I see a number of websites that don't have comments. I also notice that when an article is controversial, sometimes a site that usually has comments has them tu
by eimai134 11y ago
I see a number of websites that don't have comments. I also notice that when an article is controversial, sometimes a site that usually has comments has them turned off for that article. I think this is a kind of censorship. Newspapers used to do this by taking letters to the editor, but carefully selecting the ones they wanted to print. Obviously, every website owner has the freedom to choose to have comments or not - I hope that things don't shift that way though. One of the great things about online comments is seeing what the public thinks vs. what the media is portraying.
- anigbrowl 11y agoI used to think that was a great thing about comments. Now I quite like websites where they're switched off, because comment communities can be easily dominated by a small number of stupid or malicious people who drive out more thoughtful or nuanced commentary that doesn't suit their worldview. So often you're not really seeing what the public thinks, you're seeing what particular interest groups think, and if comments are dominated by bitter fights between adherents of, say, different political parties then a lot of people will just check out because there's no point in trying to have a civil discussion in a roomful of screaming ideologues.