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It's a big problem without one simple solution. One thing we can do, though, is not enable it when possible. One big thing I have zeroed in on recently is comme

It's a big problem without one simple solution. One thing we can do, though, is not enable it when possible. One big thing I have zeroed in on recently is comments. When I redesigned my blog/website last year, I intentionally removed Disqus and all commenting ability. In fact, what prompted the redesign was that I wanted to add a box pleading with people to not use comments for tech support for various open source projects I've created and to file Github issues instead. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized how bad comments have really gotten. Trolling, bullying, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, abuse, and general mean behavior have become such a rampant problem that "don’t read the comments" has become an Internet meme on par with "don’t feel the trolls." Think about it: when was the last time that you changed your opinion because of a comment you read on a blog or news article? More than likely it just make you mad or made you sad. I have been low-key nursing this idea for awhile now that the Internet would be better off if a lot of sites killed off comments. When comments become a breeding ground for the worst aspects of human behavior, why should we continue to enable it? Why should we host it and give it a voice? Why should we implicitly endorse it under our brand? Because that is what we do when we host comments. Commenting should probably still exist on social media sites (Facebook, Reddit, HN, etc.) But most sites would be a lot better off if they just dropped comments entirely and reallocated those resources to more productive uses, and I think their users would be better off for it as well. Yes, I am just one person with a small blog about programming. But if this is the position that I want to take, I should be the change that I want to see in the world. Thus, the removal of commenting. And I've been pushing this idea a bit in other areas that, just maybe, users don't need to be able to directly comment on things.

CM30 7y ago
Hmm, as someone who's run communities for a while, I'd have to say that the quality of a comments section is very heavily dependent on the topic, audience and how well you moderate it. Over on YouTube for instance, I've had very few negative comments on my videos, and usually found the comments section under them to be a mostly civil place where I can help out people who had trouble with a walkthrough or guide. Same goes with the comments on blog articles I wrote in the past too. The comments have generally stayed on topic, were always free of personal attacks, etc. Comment sections can certainly be hellholes, and for large media outlets they usually are. We all know how bad they are on stuff like the BBC, Daily Mail, Guardian, etc. But they don't necessarily have to be, and they can be entirely valuable if moderated well and related to a topic people don't treat like its the end of the world.
KajMagnus 7y ago
> I intentionally removed Disqus [...] pleading with people to [...] file Github issues instead What could the reasons be, that GitHub works better? That people are more polite, there? > When comments become a breeding ground for the worst aspects of human behavior For what reasons, do people feel they can be more "toxic", in blog post comments, than at GitHub? What would you say are the lessons that could be learned, from how things work at GitHub? (Disclosure: I'm building a commenting system & Q&A forum software. I have a blog post here: ` https://www.kajmagnus.blog/new-embedded-comments https://www.kajmagnus.blog/new-embedded-comments ` 145 comments, 0% toxic angry comments in my case. )

CM30 7y ago

Hmm, as someone who's run communities for a while, I'd have to say that the quality of a comments section is very heavily dependent on the topic, audience and how well you moderate it. Over on YouTube for instance, I've had very few negative comments on my videos, and usually found the comments section under them to be a mostly civil place where I can help out people who had trouble with a walkthrough or guide. Same goes with the comments on blog articles I wrote in the past too. The comments have generally stayed on topic, were always free of personal attacks, etc. Comment sections can certainly be hellholes, and for large media outlets they usually are. We all know how bad they are on stuff like the BBC, Daily Mail, Guardian, etc. But they don't necessarily have to be, and they can be entirely valuable if moderated well and related to a topic people don't treat like its the end of the world.

KajMagnus 7y ago

> I intentionally removed Disqus [...] pleading with people to [...] file Github issues instead What could the reasons be, that GitHub works better? That people are more polite, there? > When comments become a breeding ground for the worst aspects of human behavior For what reasons, do people feel they can be more "toxic", in blog post comments, than at GitHub? What would you say are the lessons that could be learned, from how things work at GitHub? (Disclosure: I'm building a commenting system & Q&A forum software. I have a blog post here: ` https://www.kajmagnus.blog/new-embedded-comments https://www.kajmagnus.blog/new-embedded-comments ` 145 comments, 0% toxic angry comments in my case. )