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This actually a good argument toward shifting commenting into a paid subscription offering. Give access to the site free of ads and allow you to comment on arti
by seanalltogether 10y ago
This actually a good argument toward shifting commenting into a paid subscription offering. Give access to the site free of ads and allow you to comment on articles.
- rezashirazian 10y agoI disagree, if people pay for the privilege of commenting, they will feel entitled and less likely to self-moderate. It would make more sense to grant commenting privileges to individuals who have engaged with the site previously and are in good standing. Much like the Product Hunt.
- throwanem 10y ago> if people pay for the privilege of commenting, they will feel entitled and less likely to self-moderate Not if getting banned means they have to buy a new account to post again.
- saboot 10y agoYeah, this is the something awful forums model. It's not perfect but better than most places.
- dredmorbius 10y agoMetafilter does this. It's surprisingly effective.
- cderwin 10y agoI think a notable exception to this is comments on the wall street journal. They are typically well-informed professionals having reasonable opinions who take the time to write in-depth comments -- not unlike this site, I suppose. And of course commenting is gated on having a paid subscription to the magazine, and I believe there is an additional paid membership that gets ones comments promoted. I don't know if things are still like this though -- I haven't had a subscription for several years.
- gulperxcx 10y agoThe standard charge should be $0.02 per comment.
- pg_is_a_butt 10y agowell, that's just like, your opinion, man.
- Declanomous 10y agoEven at $.10 a comment, trolling would still be incredibly inexpensive compared to many other hobbies.
- varjag 10y agoIt should however help eradicate industrial scale trolling by dedicated actors.
- notahacker 10y agoSome industrial scale trolling, perhaps. On the other hand, trolls and coordinated political campaigns tend to be a lot more willing to spend money to pursue their causes than people that just want to add a relevant anecdote or express their approval, so it might skew the balance of comments more towards trolling and brigading.
- mc32 10y agoWhat if you added a downvote multiplier, so if you get 5 downvotes it becomes $.50? With a max neg of score of -10. And same for downvoter. And you get meta mods who watch these mods to try to keep things from wratcheting in a runaway manner.
- Declanomous 10y agoI don't want to pay just because people disagree with me though. For instance, I've had relatively innocuous comments get downvoted on Reddit because it's an unpopular opinion. A great way to get downvotes is to find a thread where people are complaining about speed locks in apps and post "studies have shown that distracted driving is at least as dangerous as drinking and driving." You'll almost instantly get downvoted to at least -5, despite the verifiable truth of the statement. It would make vote brigading really attractive as well. Imagine if /r/TheDonald users could have caused a financial impact to anyone just by downvoting their comments. Reddit would have been a nightmare.
- throwaw12ay 10y agoThis. A lot of news outlets in Europe actually do that. Only paid subscribers can comment. It's a good compromise. It reduces trolling AND finances moderation.