Message boards/comments on stories

Poor Ernest. He never had a chance.

 

Maybe he would have had a chance if he hadn't wasted so much time doing other stuff...Going to camp, saving Christmas, going to jail, going to Africa, and so forth.

That's enough to make anyone's focus slip.

 

Marketing people will tell you you're wrong.

 

Those Yahoo boards were awful. Horribly vile and racist. Every story, too, no matter what the subject. There'd always be something up there about blacks and Jews. I like to read the letters to the editor in the newspaper, so I enjoy the kook from Dubuque kind of stuff sometimes. But those boards were really nasty.

 

I don't want to address your post, but I've got to know.

Which one are you? A Gamecock or a Tarheel?

 

We have a Fan Line, which I equate to a message board. We print 15-20 calls each day on Page 2.

Once every three months or so, I jump on and transcribe calls because we're understaffed. Each time, I get very depressed to hear just how angry, bigoted and immovable people are.

 

This has a very practical problem. I have seen these comment sections directly influence sources, particularly coaches, who are very reluctant to criticize their teams because someone will instantly label it as an "excuse" on the Web site for everyone else to read.

I have no problem with people criticizing me. I do have a problem with a newspaper sponsoring anything that causes sources to think twice before speaking up.

As few as four years ago, some Division I universities would not provide credentials to beat writers from Web sites with the reasoning that they didn't grant credentials to sites with message boards. Now almost every newspaper does has message boards or (even worse) allows comments on the same page as the story.

 

I started this thread for a healthy debate, and it has begun, but as I kind of said in the initial post, I have to emphasize: Interactivity is going to be an important part of what we do, and we're going to have to live with some of the drawbacks, I think.

 

Adding comments to a story is just like adding flair to your work outfit.

Hitler made people wear flair.

 

A Gamecock in the Tar Heel state.

 

You're right, and I'm surprised Yahoo kept them around as long as it did.

 

We verify letters to the editor and insist that people disclose any special connection they might have to the opinion they're stating.

Then we put up message boards where "HawksFan1" can say he hopes the asshole coach dies in a fiery car crash on the way home because he keeps playing that fag quarterback.

We're worse than talk radio. At least they censor that stuff before it gets on the air.