Don’t read the comments

Won’t be able to anymore at Cleveland.com since they’re going bye bye.

Open commenting at cleveland.com is going away -- Here’s why

But don’t worry. Racists will still be able to regularly post comments on the site’s Facebook page.

 

I’ve never thought those comments sections were a good thing on anyone’s site.

Friend of mine experienced a horrible tragedy years ago, and the comments section was just a complete cesspool. I hope he never saw any of them.

 

Nothing's as bad as YouTube comments sections - the Darwin's waiting room of the online world.

 

We had a comment section littered with morons at the paper I used to work at a decade ago. Nothing but anonymous shit slingers taking pot shots at local officials and the reporters. They eliminated the comments and went to a Facebook-based system around the time I was on my way out. That settled things down for roughly 12 months, until the bigots and idiots could no longer contain themselves and just became perfectly fine with their name and face being associated with their stupidity.

 

Advance is dumpting comments everywhere. They dumped them at The Oregonian a few months back. Obviously the troll factor played a part of it, but I'm also thinking they were looking for some cost savings as well. I know one thing. I miss seeing a collection of various perspectives (even if I have to wade through some dreck) on news reports that often add context that is missing in the story. And I find myself spending less time and visiting the site less frequently since a read of the headlines is usually enough.

 

My last paper rode this dragon. The comment sections were wide open, usually disgusting but sometimes interesting. Then it was "verified but anonymous" and it was about 70% of what it had been. Then it was Facebook-based and it was mostly over. Now it's only the handful of local know-it-alls who have super strong Google-"informed" opinions about everything from city council politics to school construction to JV volleyball.

 

Well then you're in luck.

 

Why?

 

Why don't news sites just limit people to 10 or 15 comments per month? You force people to make their posts count and eliminate the back and forth between trolls?

 

Because clicks!

 

That's the thing though - you eliminate comments you eliminate one extra click to comment and how many extra clicks by people checking to see if anyone reacted to their comment, multiplied by hundreds a day? That's a deep dive in clicks. Throw in that news sites are hoping to drive traffic on their website - it seems counterproductive. You engage a news consumer enough to leave a comment, it would seem you could at least make them look at an ad for 10 seconds. No comments, no ads.

 

I so wanted to comment for the Plain Dealer ...