31–40 of 65 posts
Right now, the Internet is perfect for this -- pretty much any kind of "community" I want to be in exists, and I participate in the ones I want to, following the mores established there.
I wish atroundtable used fragment identifiers so you could deeplink to comments. Or give each comment it's own standalone page as well, a la twitter.
we're on it! look for it on the next Roundtable (with Khoi Vinh, Garry Tan, etc). Any other features you would like to see?
I wish there were more proactive comments on newspaper websites. I think communities everywhere are missing out on a great opportunity to communicate, exchange ideas, and bring real change to real problems in their own towns. Most of the time newspaper comments (in my community) are about how illegal immigration is to blame for EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING. Commenters tend to rally behind the bully and pick on an…
It seems like forever that I've wanted either Facebook or curated comments on my local paper's site, SFGate.com
I'm at the point now where I won't click on a link or read a story on SFGate -- I will go an seek out another news source which carries that story if possible. The net effect of having such a cesspool of comments beneath whatever I'm reading is that it makes me I'm participating in a community of scumbags.
I'd rather read the Economist or NY Times, where the comments seem informed.
I wish there were more proactive comments on newspaper websites. I think communities everywhere are missing out on a great opportunity to communicate, exchange ideas, and bring real change to real problems in their own towns. Most of the time newspaper comments (in my community) are about how illegal immigration is to blame for EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING. Commenters tend to rally behind the bully and pick on an…
Thus came B1FF@PSUVM to roam the land of newsgroups, whence comp.sources circulated programs, rec.sf-lovers hosted epic flame-wars apropos nothing much, and alt.sex (ably assisted by alt.sex.anal) told tales titillating the prurient interest of the readership.
Since then we have learned nothing much, which is why Google is climbing up its own ass chasing the social butterfly, and there are pundits like Shirky milking this tired teat over and over.
A no-prize to whoever brings back the kill-file that was feature #1 in Usenet readers. Not to mention decent threading with color-coding of postings read, but I suppose that's too much to ask in today's morass of PHP BBs with twitching avatars and stupefying 'emoji'. Ah well.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think marvin has an excellent point: people as a universal culture tend to shun certain subjects and embrace others, and these change between nations, faiths, etc.. The availability of an anonymous forum in which to address these shunned portions ideas is a useful tool when it is leveraged in the right way. There are many things people would not say if they were to be held personally accountable for their thoughts…
You have a good point about people who hide behind anonymity just to cause damage. Thankfully, the latest generation of Internet forums has been able to keep these voices confined to places where they don't cause any damage, or, in the case of /b/, in an environment where they can actually generate something worthwhile. I'm not sure we will ever see a society which is so diverse and open that many of the views we see…
It's also a place where you can be completely dishonest, make up stories, be someone else with almost no repercussions. I think most people are being honest on reddit or HN, but the small percent that like to make up stories, personas, etc. makes it difficult for me to fully trust many of the comments I come across.
I wish there were more proactive comments on newspaper websites. I think communities everywhere are missing out on a great opportunity to communicate, exchange ideas, and bring real change to real problems in their own towns. Most of the time newspaper comments (in my community) are about how illegal immigration is to blame for EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING. Commenters tend to rally behind the bully and pick on an…
Hear hear! It seems like forever that I've wanted either Facebook or curated comments on my local paper's site, SFGate.com I'm at the point now where I won't click on a link or read a story on SFGate -- I will go an seek out another news source which carries that story if possible. The net effect of having such a cesspool of comments beneath whatever I'm reading is that it makes me I'm participating in a community of…
I feel you on the whole scumbag thing, I go through our website and check the comments everyday and am blown away by what my neighbors are saying.
I understand that anonymity is important but if you want to make real changes sooner or later someone has to show their face. Just my opinion.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The New York Times made a pretty good model. 1) Promote and recognize good comments 2) Remove offensive or non-constructive ones This form of hand curiation sets down rules and expectations which the community at large than reaches for. If you dont set down rules of course your discussion forums will disolve into petty nonsense. The loudest, dumbest voice always wins in a shouting match merely by employing a denial-o…
Unfortunately our editor's response to everything is "it's a staffing problem." Our newsroom, if you want to call it that, spends most of the day re-writing (fluffing) press releases to get a paper out the next day. Corporate has our system lock down, we don't have access to our database tables and responses to feature requests, like comment promotion, are usually..."We'll bring that up in a meeting." In my opinion p…
You should be able to leverage trust and quality recognition within your own userbase. If you can't find trusted users to seed the comment moderation system, well, you've got other issues as well.
But if the site's founders/leaders can start federating trust at least to the extent of promoting/muting content, then it most certainly isn't a staffing problem, beyond coding the necessary algorithms.