A VC - Latest Comments in Why Comments Matter

Re: Why Comments Matter

imrananwar — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:32:46 -0000

Great topic, and even greater value in the comments. One of the simplest reasons, the fact that you make it easy for non-troll users to leave a comment. Supporting OpenID and similar login credentials makes it far more likely people will add the value they want to than sending them away with forced registrations on a site they may never visit again.

Re: Why Comments Matter

fredwilson — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:30:18 -0000

Its best to move on from discussions lawyers initiate as fast as possible

Re: Why Comments Matter

Victor Agreda, Jr. — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:55:09 -0000

Wow, lots of comments on a post about comments. I'll admit -- I didn't read them all. Instead, I noticed the inevitable "Cliff's Notes" idea and wanted to mention Voices Heard media, who have an aggregating system for QA's on live web shows. I don't work with or for them, but there are companies out there working on aggregating content based on language algorithms. Maybe it'll work...

As a guy who runs a few "big" blogs, lemme say that this is where newspapers could kick blogs' arses. Seriously, a reporter who is a full time employee should dedicate a portion of their time to tending the conversation. Bloggers do this naturally, but as the content scales (blogs are more about quantity, some might argue), it becomes more difficult. Having at least a few researchers doing duty as moderators not only educates the audience but presents unique learning opportunities for the paper itself.

But they won't, as there seems to be more discussion about the liability of comments than their value... a discussion the internet had some time ago.

Re: Why Comments Matter

ShanaC — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 10:36:57 -0000

So now I am an analyst and a consultant. ;-)

Re: Why Comments Matter

fredwilson — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 08:23:26 -0000

That's one of the many things these comment threads are for :)

Re: Why Comments Matter

still_not_me — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 22:57:59 -0000

Bob,

While I respect what you are saying, i have a few quibbles with it.

- In a world with searchable internet postings, how does one balance their willingness to saying something in a public forum with their desire to have that comment permanently public and searchable? Do I want the next person I interview at work (or who interviews me) to have been able to pull up all my comments? Not really.

- Sometimes comments are debates made of strongly held opinions stated forcefully. Others can be discussions and educational. Part of education is asking questions and at time revealing ones own misunderstandings and misconceptions. Personally, I don't want to have my learning process recorded and searchable -- it just creates too much room for being misquoted in the future.

- This doesn't stop at what we say. I don't necessarily want my employer to know if i am positing on a college football blog at 3pm.

- Part of the beauty of the interweb is it lets you have interesting anonymous discussions. Perhaps some forums can hold anonymous posters to a higher level civility, or make them more easily banned, but I am not even sure that is a good idea...

Re: Why Comments Matter

Anal_yst — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:45:23 -0000

I think traditional journalism is too focused on quantity, publish-or-perish if you will, which often has every X type of reporter in Y geographical region basically covering the same stuff with usually little value-add or difference. Stop wasting time trying to cover so much and do a better job at covering less, and not just ending the gig once the article is published, but following it up with the discussion. That's how we learn, and understand.

Re: Why Comments Matter

Ryan Chittum — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 13:02:54 -0000

CharlotteAnne,
Please see my extensive and time-consuming responses to commenters on my post at CJR. I don't know if I'd call it tending my garden (this particular back-and-forth anyway!), but it is what it is.
http://www.cjr.org/the_audi...

Re: Why Comments Matter

Marcy Webb — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:11:13 -0000

Thank you for your post.

I've been thinking a lot about this very issue myself lately. Especially with respect to the racist vitriol which gets spewed re: the President and the First Family, and, most recently, Dr. Henry Louis Gates on so many newspaper and magazine blogs. There is nobody minding the proverbial store, and, is thus a train wreck waiting to happen.

Which is why I thoroughly enjoy reading through the comment threads on Ta-Nehisi Coates' blog. He has worked hard to create a culture where his readers work hard to craft their comments with thoughtfulness and intelligence. It is also a culture where the readers hold each other to the same standard. I am glad to read that you encourage a similar culture here on your blog.

Speaking of Ta-Nehisi Coates' blog, I have re-printed the comment of Los Niños del Maiz, who responded to the post, 'The Root Flooded With Racist Comments.'

"As for the whole Roots thing though, I wouldn't ever worry too much about whatever comments show up on an Internet message board. It acts as a megaphone for the cranks, conspiracy theorists, nutjobs, etc. And these people were always with us. They used to have to mimeograph their newsletters and hold conferences where they all just nodded at each other. Now they can all hop onto the 'Net and spew. Even if we were in a completely post-racial society, whatever the definition, we'd still have a group of hardcore cranks polluting the Internet with their rantings. They all just seem louder now with insta-posting, instant messaging, cell phones everywhere, etc...."

Yep. That addresses the question.

Re: Why Comments Matter

Turdwaller — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:55:47 -0000

Along with the PR industries refining of their ability to pump out massive amounts of disguised disinformation comes our inability to buy into anything we read in main stream media. The success of the PR networks to bury "news" under mountains of propaganda has made the week and questionable comment sections the last vestige of believability.

Sort of sorting comments is a good idea if it can work.

Reading through a bunch of comments give one the same kind of feeling as does poling people at a party. Both heartening and scary as hell.

Re: Why Comments Matter

ShanaC — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:24:01 -0000

So that's how you reply from email notification, huh.

Re: Why Comments Matter

kidmercury — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:16:10 -0000

i should note i have not tried it since they are still in their limited run, but from what i've seen here's what i like:

1. interface. for me this is huge for disqus and its competitors, i.e. sezwho, intensedebate, etc. disqus has by far the best interface IMO. however i like echo's interface (at least from the screenshots i've seen) a lot. the one beef i have with disqus' interface is that i was not sure if i can enter HTML, or what type of HTML....echo makes this clearer because of its WYSIWYG editor, which i am a fan of.

2. integration with other identities, more so than disqus. i suspect disqus knows how important this is and will continue to make it a priority, though i think integration with things like google friend connect, facebook, twitter, etc is extremely important and i think echo is one up here at least in the short term because they let you login with your identity on a wider variety of services.

3. most appealing to me is that js kit, makers of echo, have lots of other community building services, like rating comments on a 1-5 star scale, adding polls, etc. basically it seems like they are better positioned to take a non-social site and make it a powerful community. they even include revenue sources for publishers via their advisor product. from a business model perspective i have a lot more confidence in this route. i wonder if it displaces the need for a more robust content management system for managing a community? i doubt it, and i hope not because that could shatter my business dreams, but js kit is coming the closest, in my opinion.

anyway my $.02 fwiw

Re: Why Comments Matter

Ben Atlas — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 07:54:32 -0000

Let’s say we are advising a Sheboygan Telegraph on comments.

1) I would link your post and encourage writer participation
2) I would also be cognizant of the fact that Sheboygan Telegraph is now profitable and they pay an author a fee for an article. Therefore I would send them to read chapter from Dan Ariely’s book on how ‘free and paid’ don’t mix and suggest that a writer’s time to tend an article might required a fee in addition to the article fee. Unlike blogs that are written without a fee.
3) I would tell Sheboygan Telegraph that they might appoint a full or part time “community moderator” to tend the garden.
4) I would tell Sheboygan Telegraph that anonymous junk comments are killing them and they might required a registration to their forum to comment. Even HuffPost require a registration ( NYT I believe also requires a registration), there is no other way if you volume reaches an occasional 100 comments an hour (not 100 comments per day like Fred’s blog)
5) I would tell Fred that Disqus should enable a registration to a forum. I.e. you have an account with Disqus but you need a permission to join Sheboygan Telegraph forum to comment there. This where the ‘freemium’ kicks in. Disqus will be charging Sheboygan Telegraph a fee for the walled forum.
6) I would then conclude by saying that anonymity on the internet has deep cultural roots, geek handles, etc. But everyone who cares about the online conversation should speak up about the importance an authenticated conversation. Till people feel comfortable with their own name online, we will never get rid of the spam.
7) Like Fred said the tolerance for anonymity is compared to a tolerance for pornography but there might be a different culture about it in Stockholm for example. This culture is slowly changing, people are not as afraid to sign their posts anymore. But we should take every opportunity to speak up about the change away from the anonymity.

Re: Why Comments Matter

fredwilson — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 05:31:27 -0000

my blackberry went nuts on me and sent out a bunch of extra emails when we landed in paris

Re: Why Comments Matter

ShanaC — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:39:48 -0000

I agree, but it requires a lot of research, some of which I can't say I am empowered to have on my obsessive acdemia side- it involves crazy stuff like Reed's Law and Reactions to telegraphs and photograph when they first invented...

No easy answer..and I'm turning into an analyst for you :-p

Re: Why Comments Matter

fredwilson — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:46:59 -0000

Don't worry. I'm gonna delete the dups (or quints)

Re: Why Comments Matter

fredwilson — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:46:57 -0000

Thanks for the link. I"ll check it out

Re: Why Comments Matter

fredwilson — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:45:35 -0000

No. I did a lot of replies on the flight to paris on my blackberry and it went a little nuts when I landed. Sorry about that

Re: Why Comments Matter

fredwilson — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:42:29 -0000

I wasn't going that far. If HN would supply disqus with rss feeds of the comments by url, disqus could add them in

Re: Why Comments Matter

fredwilson — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:26:21 -0000

You nailed it. My blackberry went nuts on me when I landed in paris and fired away the same emails 4-5x

Re: Why Comments Matter

fredwilson — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:11:34 -0000

So true. Read the comment threads on my politics posts and you'll see a very different discussion

Re: Why Comments Matter

fredwilson — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:11:32 -0000

I don't intend to

Re: Why Comments Matter

fredwilson — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:10:20 -0000

Its my blackberry's fault. It went haywire when I landed in paris and sent out a ton of email. I'm sorry about that. I didn't realize until it just now

Re: Why Comments Matter

William Mougayar — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:08:38 -0000

I went back to Douglas Bailey's article and was surprised to see190 readers Comments! Most of them disagreed with him, of course. I liked this one:
"Why does Mr. Bailey think that journalists should be artificially protected from the same type of organic challenge presented by internet media?"

Re: Why Comments Matter

lawrence coburn — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:09:17 -0000

I think he's *sneakily* trying to set a comment record on his post about comments. Sorry, but there will need to be an asterisk if this post sets the all time comment record for AVC.