Seattle's Steve Kelley hates anonymous comments

[Versatile]

Reader comments are awful. Which is why none of us should read them.

Ignore readers at your own peril. You have to learn to read between the hate, but those comments can be illuminating. We're here to serve readers, and the less we listen, the more they turn away.

We're not here to ask readers if they want fries with that. We're here to inform them, to provide perspective. We're not here to bend to focus-groupery.

We're long past the era when we could tell people what was important.

I don't think reader comments should be taken literally (with one exception: corrections; readers often are passionate about what they read, and sometimes that passion comes with knowledge), but to ignore them completely is to ignore the types of topics that could draw more readers. Website monetization isn't part of my job, but drawing readers is. If you run a feature story about a football coach and every comment is slamming or defending his choice not to use the option with the fast quarterback, well, there's a good chance your readers would prefer a story focused on why the coach doesn't run the option rather than a feature.

You can draw information without selling your soul.

 

[LongTimeListener]

If that was the genesis point for story ideas, Bruce Bochy would have been fired in May 2012 because Brandon Belt wasn't playing enough.

 

[Versatile]

If that was the genesis point for story ideas, Bruce Bochy would have been fired in May 2012 because Brandon Belt wasn't playing enough.

That's going about three steps further than I did. I bet a weekly Brandon Belt Watch would have done verywell on SFGate.com, though.

 

[Kolchak]

On YouTube, anonymous comments often turn to racial flaming. At the end of news stories at any site, they often turn into political bickering. Doesn't even matter what the story is about.

"Damn George W. Bush and those Republicans for the big business Angels being able to outbid everyone else for Josh Hamilton!"

"Damn Obama for the NHL lockout!"

On our newspaper's website, people get really pissed off if the sports reporter writes something they disagree with, often demanding he be fired for having a differing opinion. Yet they get even more pissed off if the reporter ever changes his mind!!!! It's a lose-lose.

But to hear the bean counters talk about web hits, you'd think we were making $1000 for every comment posted.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

They're not even counting the beans. They're defending a dream -- the impossible dream that Internet advertising revenue can save a newspaper.

 

[micropolitan guy]

The Times, and whatever readers it still has, will miss him. A very solid columnist with a lot of institutional memory of the Seattle sports scene.

 

[writingump]

If I'm not mistaken, it's the same Steve Kelley who was a Blazers beat writer for the Oregonian the year that David Halberstam followed the team around for his outstanding book. As for his weariness with anonymous comments, I fully understand. One of the great things about my gig now (freelancer for TSX and Southern Illinoisan) is that I don't have to click on a story and then read Billy Bob from BFE say that "your agin us and you should rot in heck."

 

[HejiraHenry]

I don't know why any newspaper has a comments section that doesn't require a llinkup with Facebook or such as that. Presto, problem solved.

 

[jr/shotglass]

Steve Kelley needs an honorary membership to SportsJournalists.com.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

I don't know why any newspaper has a comments section that doesn't require a llinkup with Facebook or such as that. Presto, problem solved.

Alot of them are now, and it cuts down on the flamefests dramatically.

 

[Versatile]

I don't know why any newspaper has a comments section that doesn't require a llinkup with Facebook or such as that. Presto, problem solved.

Switching to Facebook comments leads to fewer comments, which leads to fewer hits and less reader engagement.

 

[Ace]

I wouldn't mind the nasty comments so much if the nasty folks didn't all say the same tired old stuff and act like they just had a clever thought.