5 ms·

German Der Spiegel ends user comments

4 points by ofrzeta 3y ago

ofrzeta 3y ago
I posted this inspired by a recent comment about ... comments (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38653845 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38653845). Der Spiegel effectively terminated comments to specific articles and replaced them by a central place called "Debatte" (debate) where you can discuss matters in a heavily moderated place. You can't even start a new conversation but can propose a new topic for debate when you have enough "karma". The editors then decide whether to open up your proposal to general debate. I guess it's a lot of work to moderate all comments when there are lot of toxic comments (although the Vox Coral forum software allows to use Perspective API) but still think it's a loss not to have a free/open possibility to comment on a specific article. Also former commenters lost all of their former contributions and can't access them any longer. The German Süddeutsche Zeitung has given up on comments quite a while ago. There are still comments in Die Zeit and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as far as I know. EDIT: I also heavily editorialized the title of the submitted article because they tried not to make a big deal of the transition and buried it in the general community guidelines.
amadeuspagel 3y ago
Curious. Journalists spend all their time on twitter, always crying about its lack of moderation, but do not take the opportunity to use the audience they still have to create something better.
- bediger4000 3y ago
  Der Spiegel journalists did not make this decision, and we can be sure of that because they're not in charge. This is a publisher level decision.
  - amadeuspagel 3y ago
    My point is about people who "spend all their time on twitter, always crying about its lack of moderation, but do not take the opportunity to use the audience they still have to create something better", not about their profession, but as a matter of fact Stefan Ottlitz, Chief Product Officer at Der Spiegel is a journalist[1]. [1]: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Ottlitz https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Ottlitz
    - ofrzeta 3y ago
      Ottlitz is now the CEO of the Spiegel Verlag, at least that's what their own page says [1]. Wikipedia probably should be updated. [1] https://gruppe.spiegel.de/unternehmen https://gruppe.spiegel.de/unternehmen
  - ofrzeta 3y ago
    Not to refute or confirm you claim, just for the record there's a "Spiegel KG" (limited partnership or something like that legal entity) that's constituted by journalists and other employees of the company. They have a seat on the board and take (some) part in decisions - altough in practice they will probably be overruled in most cases. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiegel-Mitarbeiter_KG https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiegel-Mitarbeiter_KG

4 points by ofrzeta 3y ago

I posted this inspired by a recent comment about ... comments (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38653845 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38653845). Der Spiegel effectively terminated comments to specific articles and replaced them by a central place called "Debatte" (debate) where you can discuss matters in a heavily moderated place. You can't even start a new conversation but can propose a new topic for debate when you have enough "karma". The editors then decide whether to open up your proposal to general debate. I guess it's a lot of work to moderate all comments when there are lot of toxic comments (although the Vox Coral forum software allows to use Perspective API) but still think it's a loss not to have a free/open possibility to comment on a specific article. Also former commenters lost all of their former contributions and can't access them any longer. The German Süddeutsche Zeitung has given up on comments quite a while ago. There are still comments in Die Zeit and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as far as I know. EDIT: I also heavily editorialized the title of the submitted article because they tried not to make a big deal of the transition and buried it in the general community guidelines.

amadeuspagel 3y ago

Curious. Journalists spend all their time on twitter, always crying about its lack of moderation, but do not take the opportunity to use the audience they still have to create something better.

bediger4000 3y ago
Der Spiegel journalists did not make this decision, and we can be sure of that because they're not in charge. This is a publisher level decision.
- amadeuspagel 3y ago
  My point is about people who "spend all their time on twitter, always crying about its lack of moderation, but do not take the opportunity to use the audience they still have to create something better", not about their profession, but as a matter of fact Stefan Ottlitz, Chief Product Officer at Der Spiegel is a journalist[1]. [1]: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Ottlitz https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Ottlitz
  - ofrzeta 3y ago
    Ottlitz is now the CEO of the Spiegel Verlag, at least that's what their own page says [1]. Wikipedia probably should be updated. [1] https://gruppe.spiegel.de/unternehmen https://gruppe.spiegel.de/unternehmen
- ofrzeta 3y ago
  Not to refute or confirm you claim, just for the record there's a "Spiegel KG" (limited partnership or something like that legal entity) that's constituted by journalists and other employees of the company. They have a seat on the board and take (some) part in decisions - altough in practice they will probably be overruled in most cases. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiegel-Mitarbeiter_KG https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiegel-Mitarbeiter_KG