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NPR Website to Get Rid of Comments

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Re: NPR Website to Get Rid of Comments

#331

Post by adrusi »

I think that maybe hosting comments alongside the original article isn't the best approach. Half the fun of internet comments is discussing with other commenters, but that works a lot better when you know the community that you're discussing with. You can't reasonably keep track of the dynamics of hundreds of different content provider's comment sections, nor can all content providers have interesting commenting communities.

We need a standard comment syndication format like RSS so that sites like HN and Reddit can continue to provide good communities for discussion, but content providers can still display comments below their content to show off reader engagement.

Re: NPR Website to Get Rid of Comments

#332

Post by showerst »

dredmorbius wrote: post #265
showerst wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

omginternets we're starting to run into HN flame-war restrictions, and I'm working so apologies if responses come slowly. > How do you think publishers would respond to these counter-points? In my experience 1 and 2 are fine, but 3 is actually a _net negative_ to some of them. People who by and large have come up through 10+ years of paying dues in a 'The patrician editor is always right' culture _hate_ giving up con…

Taboola and Outbrain's recommendations are so pathetically insulting, and the tracking so obvious, that I've both blocked their domains (router DNS server) and specifically set "display:none;" properties on any CSS classes/IDs matching their names or substrings. It's pathetic bottom-feeder crap. Maybe if I fed the beast through tracking, I'd see higher quality recommendations, but I won't, and I don't. They only serv…

I was referring specifically to their paid same-site recommendation engines. So you drop it into an article, and it recommends other articles from your site. In my experience it's decent to good, depending on what metadata you provide it.

I agree that the '10 weight loss secrets' promoted junk to third party sites is bottom scraping.

Re: NPR Website to Get Rid of Comments

#333

Post by showerst »

dredmorbius wrote: post #239
dageshi wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The slashdot system for categorising comments seemed to work really well at making the highest quality comments stand out, I wonder why other sites haven't tried something similar, I don't think I've seen it used elsewhere.

Slashdot's moderation system was vaguely effective. Complete crap rarely rose to the top. A great deal of high-quality commentary was buried, however, often the best and most informative. That's fairliy much par for the course. Much the early vibe on the site came from the fact that it was simply where intelligent people were commenting online -- especially the early Free Software crowd (well, early in terms of Web 1…

Interestingly for this discussion, CmdrTaco is now at Wapo, after a brief spin through their various internal startups.

Re: NPR Website to Get Rid of Comments

#334

Post by SuperPaintMan »

solipsism wrote: post #328
giancarlostoro wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> e.g. someone should be able to criticize Elon Musk without being downvoted to hell. I wish downvoting wouldn't be allowed without a "reply" to parent post, that way if I'm being downvoted nonstop I know why. Sometimes I get downvoted like crazy and have no clue as to why. Or even if I guess it doesn't add to the conversation to just shut me out because you disagree without teaching me why. I wonder how HN would be…

The problem with HN is that 90% of the downvote justifications would be "this differs from my worldview".

Then at least it is stated.

Re: NPR Website to Get Rid of Comments

#335

Post by InclinedPlane »

gr3yh47 wrote: post #176
overcast wrote: post #170

This is an interesting move, and a topic I've been discussing with friends. I've stopped using sites like Reddit, because the comment sections are just toxic. I've gone as far as installing Chrome extensions that make comment sections disappear from popular sites like YouTube. It's too easy to get drawn into the negativity, and I'm completely over it. "Social Networking" has reached it's low point as far as I'm conce…

>Hacker News is about the only civil place I'm capable of contributing to a discussion to at this point. the interesting thing about this is that HN comment system seems to discourage dialogue - i.e. you are not notified when someone replies to your comment. It seems to be more geared towards comment-it-and-forget-it.

It really is annoying. It allows for a very brief and mostly superficial conversation on whatever happens to be on the front page in the last few hours, and then it's done. That's no way to have a legitimate, in depth discussion. And the result is definitely a stunting of the quality of the conversation in the name of... I'm not sure, forestalling flame wars, keeping people interested by keeping the front page churning, I don't know.

Re: NPR Website to Get Rid of Comments

#336

Post by dredmorbius »

showerst wrote: post #332
dredmorbius wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taboola and Outbrain's recommendations are so pathetically insulting, and the tracking so obvious, that I've both blocked their domains (router DNS server) and specifically set "display:none;" properties on any CSS classes/IDs matching their names or substrings. It's pathetic bottom-feeder crap. Maybe if I fed the beast through tracking, I'd see higher quality recommendations, but I won't, and I don't. They only serv…

I was referring specifically to their paid same-site recommendation engines. So you drop it into an article, and it recommends other articles from your site. In my experience it's decent to good, depending on what metadata you provide it. I agree that the '10 weight loss secrets' promoted junk to third party sites is bottom scraping.

It tarnishes both brands. Taboola and the hosting site.

Sufficiently that the in-site referrals fail for technical reasons.

Re: NPR Website to Get Rid of Comments

#337

Post by dredmorbius »

showerst wrote: post #333
dredmorbius wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slashdot's moderation system was vaguely effective. Complete crap rarely rose to the top. A great deal of high-quality commentary was buried, however, often the best and most informative. That's fairliy much par for the course. Much the early vibe on the site came from the fact that it was simply where intelligent people were commenting online -- especially the early Free Software crowd (well, early in terms of Web 1…

Interestingly for this discussion, CmdrTaco is now at Wapo, after a brief spin through their various internal startups.

And WashPo's clickbaitism is getting unbearable.

I'm about ready to blackhole that domain.

Re: NPR Website to Get Rid of Comments

#338

Post by SuperPaintMan »

Balgair wrote: post #185
overcast wrote: post #170

This is an interesting move, and a topic I've been discussing with friends. I've stopped using sites like Reddit, because the comment sections are just toxic. I've gone as far as installing Chrome extensions that make comment sections disappear from popular sites like YouTube. It's too easy to get drawn into the negativity, and I'm completely over it. "Social Networking" has reached it's low point as far as I'm conce…

Then make sure to NOT talk about HN. Hidden gems only stay gems if you do NOT blab about them.

Rule No. 1.

Re: NPR Website to Get Rid of Comments

#340

Post by QuarterReptile »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #297
eddieh wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even HN has declined, but what bothers me most is that HN has a definite range of views that are acceptable. This limits useful discourse. e.g. someone should be able to criticize Elon Musk without being downvoted to hell. While HN does stay civil, I think it is too limited in general. Don't get me wrong, the reason I use HN is because the discussion hasn't devolved into /. or reddit. However, HN would do well to enc…

> e.g. someone should be able to criticize Elon Musk without being downvoted to hell. I wish downvoting wouldn't be allowed without a "reply" to parent post, that way if I'm being downvoted nonstop I know why. Sometimes I get downvoted like crazy and have no clue as to why. Or even if I guess it doesn't add to the conversation to just shut me out because you disagree without teaching me why. I wonder how HN would be…

Whenever I find that happening on a comment, I comment on it to call people out. That seems to slow the decline (and judging from my points, people seem to appreciate it.)
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