4 ms·

^ this is why we should never trust news/current-affairs site that disables its comments section

by Tycho 9y ago

jeromegv 9y ago
There's more than enough forums to debunk weird/bad articles, starting with Twitter. Comments section tend to be filled with anonymous trolls fulls of conspiracy theories, I would prefer to see a rebunk from someone that has some kind of reputation within the field.
- Tycho 9y ago
  And sometimes a simple, straight-forward comment is all it takes to stop the propaganda effort dead in its tracks (hence why many such articles have the comment section mysteriously disabled, e.g. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/18/syria-white-helmets-conspiracy-theories https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/18/syria-white-he... ). Leaving it to readers to go out and actively vet the information on some other 'forum' just allows the propaganda to spread further than it otherwise would.
  - wybiral 9y ago
    A voice of reason can quickly be overshadowed by a wave of ignorance. The comments sections on most of the news articles I've seen, when they're up, are usually divisive noisy trolls.
    - Tycho 9y ago
      Negligible price to pay.
      - wybiral 9y ago
        But it outweighs the benefits if the noise level is so high that the one or two sane comments don't even get seen.
        Tycho 9y ago
        Straightforward, easily verified observations have a habit of rising to the top. Longwinded tirades about MK Ultra are easy to skip.
- acct1771 9y ago
  Let the comments speak for themselves. Don't hide them behind a barrier. Freedom of expression is more important than protecting people from reading mean ideas about their favorite politician etc.
  - wybiral 9y ago
    You have the freedom to go on Twitter and write mean things about someone's favorite politician. And news sites have the freedom to remove unwanted noise and divisive trolling from their articles.
    - freeflight 9y ago
      > And news sites have the freedom to remove unwanted noise and divisive trolling from their articles. Sure they have, but if you actually consider media the "fourth branch of government" then wouldn't it be more desirable to let people have public discourse and debate, after all, that's supposed to be its role? Print media at least has reader's letters, what's the modern equivalent of digital media? Comments! They allow even more people to participate in the discourse. Disable the comments and what's left? Pretty much nothing but articles quoting random noise from Twitter, which isn't something everybody can or wants to participate in.

^ this is why we should never trust news/current-affairs site that disables its comments section

by Tycho 9y ago

^ this is why we should never trust news/current-affairs site that disables its comments section

There's more than enough forums to debunk weird/bad articles, starting with Twitter. Comments section tend to be filled with anonymous trolls fulls of conspiracy theories, I would prefer to see a rebunk from someone that has some kind of reputation within the field.

Tycho 9y ago
And sometimes a simple, straight-forward comment is all it takes to stop the propaganda effort dead in its tracks (hence why many such articles have the comment section mysteriously disabled, e.g. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/18/syria-white-helmets-conspiracy-theories https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/18/syria-white-he... ). Leaving it to readers to go out and actively vet the information on some other 'forum' just allows the propaganda to spread further than it otherwise would.
- wybiral 9y ago
  A voice of reason can quickly be overshadowed by a wave of ignorance. The comments sections on most of the news articles I've seen, when they're up, are usually divisive noisy trolls.
  - Tycho 9y ago
    Negligible price to pay.
    - wybiral 9y ago
      But it outweighs the benefits if the noise level is so high that the one or two sane comments don't even get seen.
      - Tycho 9y ago
        Straightforward, easily verified observations have a habit of rising to the top. Longwinded tirades about MK Ultra are easy to skip.
acct1771 9y ago
Let the comments speak for themselves. Don't hide them behind a barrier. Freedom of expression is more important than protecting people from reading mean ideas about their favorite politician etc.
- wybiral 9y ago
  You have the freedom to go on Twitter and write mean things about someone's favorite politician. And news sites have the freedom to remove unwanted noise and divisive trolling from their articles.
  - freeflight 9y ago
    > And news sites have the freedom to remove unwanted noise and divisive trolling from their articles. Sure they have, but if you actually consider media the "fourth branch of government" then wouldn't it be more desirable to let people have public discourse and debate, after all, that's supposed to be its role? Print media at least has reader's letters, what's the modern equivalent of digital media? Comments! They allow even more people to participate in the discourse. Disable the comments and what's left? Pretty much nothing but articles quoting random noise from Twitter, which isn't something everybody can or wants to participate in.