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Getting Rid of Comments on Vice.com

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Re: Getting Rid of Comments on Vice.com

#191

Post by Chris2048 »

danso wrote: post #12
Fr0ntBack wrote: post #2

I think if you're getting mostly garbage comments, it should give you pause for thought. Yes, the format of the internet doesn't encourage thoughtful, polite comments. But equally there might be a problem with what you're writing if you're attracting trolls. This is certainly true of Vice.

I think that assertion looks good on paper but isn't fair in practice. Other than communities that have significant friction to get in -- e.g. $5 for a Metafilter membership -- comments are going to fall prey to the dynamic that afflicts online reviews: people who are pissed are often more motivated to make it known, compared to those who are merely satisfied [0]. Whatever one might think of Vice overall, the model i…

> good journalism in general pisses people off

Not so much as bad jouirnalism

Re: Getting Rid of Comments on Vice.com

#192

Post by Chris2048 »

astrodust wrote: post #116
newswriter99 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rolling Stone lost all credibility after publishing that fake rape story.

One story, all credibility, huh? You must live in a world where nobody is credible. The New York Times has suffered hits to its credibility, fake photographers, plagiarism and such, but that doesn't necessarily negate all the work done by their talented staff. There's still good work being done there despite those setbacks. It's a fallacy to instantly discount everything as without merit, putting it on the same level…

> One story, all credibility, huh?

Yes. The "story" made specific criminal accusations.

> You must live in a world where nobody is credible.

Publications are held to a different standard.

> New York Times... but that doesn't necessarily negate all the work

It just means you can no longer trust the publication.

> putting it on the same level as Breitbart

Here we go. Tell me what's wrong with Breitbart?

Re: Getting Rid of Comments on Vice.com

#193

Post by Chris2048 »

thinkloop wrote: post #77
caseysoftware wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering how much of the media was shocked SHOCKED by Brexit, the election of Trump, Sarkozy's loss, the fall of Merkel, and the rise of Le Pen, maybe they should pay more attention to the comments..

Those were shocking events. Scientific polls, liquid prediction markets and experts, all predicted different outcomes. It would have been irresponsible to take different positions. Either the tools we have to measure these things are inadequate, and must be improved. People simply changed their minds as the events drew near. Or we happened to hit the underdog outcomes (80% chance of Hillary is still 1 in 5 for Trump)…

Scientific polls have participation and subjectivity flaws, 'expert' opinion begs the question.

No one addresses the obvious weaknesses, they just say "this is the best we have", but then act with confidence in the predictions, rather than admit we don't know.

Re: Getting Rid of Comments on Vice.com

#194

Post by Chris2048 »

kevinburke wrote: post #165
reality_czech wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. use the anonymous comment system to post fake threats against yourself and/or racist rants 2. use the comments from #1 to argue that anonymous comment sections should be shut down 3. profit!

Internet writers are busy enough without having to maintain fake racist diatribes against themselves in their own comment sections. I don't see what "profit" any writer gets from shutting down the comments section; they clearly wanted to keep it open, despite the numerous accounts they had to ban. This is ludicrous.

You could fund a kickstarter, say...

Re: Getting Rid of Comments on Vice.com

#195

Post by phaemon »

snowpanda wrote: post #131
swalsh wrote: post #60

Hacker News after all these years has managed to maintain a pretty high standard when it comes to comment quality (my comments excluded, of course, they are of much lower quality). A large part of that is it was started with a pretty small group that set the tone and quality, and it has always been very aggressive towards new commenters in the form of limiting down-votes, and chastising lower quality comments. That b…

>Hacker News after all these years has managed to maintain a pretty high standard when it comes to comment quality It's easy to maintain quality when the majority of your visitors have the same political and social beliefs. Basic income, renewable energy, income inequality... It gets really old for people living outside of the Silicon Valley bubble.

You think that because I'd like to see a basic income, care about renewable energy and income equality, that I must be living in the Silicon Valley bubble? Is that genuinely what you think?

Re: Getting Rid of Comments on Vice.com

#196

Post by phaemon »

Chris2048 wrote: post #192
astrodust wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One story, all credibility, huh? You must live in a world where nobody is credible. The New York Times has suffered hits to its credibility, fake photographers, plagiarism and such, but that doesn't necessarily negate all the work done by their talented staff. There's still good work being done there despite those setbacks. It's a fallacy to instantly discount everything as without merit, putting it on the same level…

> One story, all credibility, huh? Yes. The "story" made specific criminal accusations. > You must live in a world where nobody is credible. Publications are held to a different standard. > New York Times... but that doesn't necessarily negate all the work It just means you can no longer trust the publication. > putting it on the same level as Breitbart Here we go. Tell me what's wrong with Breitbart?

> Here we go. Tell me what's wrong with Breitbart?

Every story they run on climate change is a pile of innumerate, scientifically illiterate crap? Those are the only stories I see from them as they get quoted for amusement value sometimes on the Sea Ice forums.

But maybe their sports coverage is good or something. Who knows.

Re: Getting Rid of Comments on Vice.com

#197

Post by axelfreeman »

spott wrote: post #120

I think there actually might be a market here for Reddit... Create a subreddit for a news site, and each new article on the news site automatically gets a new post on the subreddit. Embed the relevant post on the news site. Since "karma" is transitive across Reddit and across news sites, users are slightly less likely to troll. You could also do this with some sort of reputation system across websites (Disqus could a…

Karma is only useful if you can't click a new account in 2 seconds.

Re: Getting Rid of Comments on Vice.com

#198

Post by Neliquat »

kyrre wrote: post #162

no comments = fake news

Not literally, there are thousands of counter examples, but it does seem that you seldom see fake news sites with a comment section. More and more authors are getting tired of being called out for shoddy reporting on the same page as their article.

Re: Getting Rid of Comments on Vice.com

#199

Post by kristofferR »

djtriptych wrote: post #55
frozenport wrote: post #9

Comments are one of the only time effective ways to challenge news stories. Indeed editorials in newspapers used to be a mode of public discourse. If we consider VICE a legitimate news outlet, then this a sad day.

Write a letter and sign your name.

Nobody except Vice gets to see that, and since nobody sees them Vice won't feel pressured into correcting their article.

Re: Getting Rid of Comments on Vice.com

#200

Post by kristofferR »

kevinburke wrote: post #54
colordrops wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> anonymous people in our comments section doxxing our authors and other people, and vile, racist attacks on our authors and groups of people", then yes, this is an attempt to "control the message." That is a cop-out and not true for all comment sections. > There's no evidence for this, and it's unrelated to the topic. That's a huge cop-out statement to shutdown conversation, and this is about as on-topic as possible…

Sorry - did you read the article? It was true for Vice: > Too often they devolve into racist, misogynistic maelstroms where the loudest, most offensive, and stupidest opinions get pushed to the top and the more reasoned responses drowned out in the noise... we had to ban countless commenters over the years for threatening our writers and subjects, doxxing private citizens, and engaging in hate speech against pretty m…

They deliberately neglected to mention how often the top comment pointed out factual inaccuracies in their stories though.
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