"Comments" section for stories: Why are they allowed?

We have a feature like this on our site, and I despise it. I don't like it because it allows readers to immediately post material on our Web site. Any posts that cross the line are deleted in due course, but I don't think they should've been there in the first place.

The argument I presented to those above me is that we edit letters to the editor for content. We wouldn't let anybody just walk in and dictate content in the paper. The Web site should be held to the same standard, and posts should be monitored before being posted.

 

Our company lawyer says no to unmoderated comments.
Everything posted has to be approved by a web manager.
If it doesn't meet the standard of published letters to the editor, it won't be allowed.
Simple.
No one comments and a local blog touts itself as the information leader because they take our stories and then allow unfiltered comments.
The racist, sexist and offensive crap posted is hard to believe.
*shrug*

 

from experience, unfettered reader comments on the web do unfortunately increase web hits when they get ridiculous.

 

Our company lawyer would rather have unmoderated messages, but we moderate ours for the time being. We just can't edit them in any way -- it's either approve or spike.

We have stories that we single out for discussion, though -- not the comments-for-every-story setup. I like it better that way.

 

And there is the only sensible answer to the question in the subject of this thread. I don't agree with it, but the only reason these are allowed is because it increases hits. Then again it seems like it's the same 10 d-bags going back forth on every story anyways. If someone really had something thoughtful to say about a story they'd take the time to send the writer an e-mail. I don't see why we give people a forum for their bullshit...there are plenty of message boards out there for that.

 

I believe the comments sections are purely for increasing Web traffic. People comment and come back to check replies over and over and over and over. As far as I can figure out, the Web honchos call it "building a community." It seems to be all the rage.

I argued against it and lost big.

 

That's real fine marketing there. Let's go over to the Daily Bugle's Web site and watch the assholes make fools of themselves.
Sometimes, I think American journalism deserves to die. Letting people spew hatred to increase Web hits is evil. And worse, it's stupid evil.

 

This is the best post I've read in a while.

 

I don't know if it's possible, especially when you do not have to subscribe in order to visit newspaper Web sites, but if people had to use their real names on the comments sections, they actually would be pretty close to what they've idealistically sold as being, and the overwhelming majority of the garbage would never be posted.

 

Why does the suit prefer unmoderated?

 

Clearly, the reason is to drive up web readership.

That's a lot of ad clicks.

Our local paper is very, very active in comments -- www.poststar.com -- and last week they cracked down and started being much more strict.

It was getting out of control.

We have had several of those "young people die in car crashes" up here with the expected comments.

We also get a lot of relatives or "relatives" of accused criminals posting.

 

I never (well, at least rarely -- if it happens, it's by accident) read the comments at the bottom of a story. Not because I'm above it or anything. It's just that I don't personally give a fuck what Joe Reader has to say about a story.

I read the story.

I get the information.

I'm done.

I realize a lot of others not only do read the comment, but also comment themselves. Part of it is probably being journalists, many or most of us here don't comment and/or think the commenters are the same dumbass readers we don't want to deal with via calls and emails that we seem to have threads about here almost daily.

At the same time, it is the new internet model, it seems, for having people read. Interaction = traffic = dollars. So, while I think badmouthing the deceased, etc., via comment is reprehensible, I think comment sections are here to stay, and if you ignore the stupidity of readers (something we're all used to doing), comments aren't that big a deal.