JSOnline comments will be limited to paid subscribers starting Feb 15 to encourage more civil foru
I have long ago stopped reading the comments section!!
George Stanley
?@geostanley
JSOnline comments will be limited to paid subscribers starting Feb 15 to encourage more civil forums http://buff.ly/1W2iXNu
First, we had to eliminate commenting from our obituaries.
We learned this by rude experience immediately after we first allowed commenting on JSOnline. Possessed by a meanness that is hard for people of goodwill to comprehend, strangers hiding in online anonymity would spit venom beneath the story of a deceased person they had chosen to hate — because of occupation, race, education, religion, political leaning, nation of origin or maybe just because they had led an admirable life.
Next, we had to block comments from many stories about life in the city.
If you think racism is largely a sin of the past in America, you haven't seen what some will say from under the hood of a digital avatar or phony name. Last Sunday's story about the city's 152 homicide victims — nearly all of them young, some of them infants and children — brought out the very worst among us, including one anonymous coward who emailed that he wished the death toll were higher.
Many stories draw hundreds, even thousands of comments, posted all hours day and night. We don't have the staff to prescreen or continually read all comments. Our readers help us flag people who break the rules so we can take the comments down and suspend or revoke their privileges.
Problem is, the rule breakers return under new names and emails.
Starting on Feb. 15, we will finally have the technology available to restrict online commenting to paid subscribers. And that's what we will do.
We offer commenting to encourage a forum for civil conversation, a place where folks from various walks of life can contribute their personal knowledge, thoughts and expertise. Before writing their first comment, users agree to follow basic rules of civil behavior: no personal attacks, harassment, threats, obscenities, bearing of false witness and so on.
Many of our paying customers have asked us to do a better job enforcing those rules. As one put it, the worst comments "contribute to the divisiveness and lack of civility we are experiencing" and also "allow paid operatives the opportunity to stir the pot."..........................
PaladinOfAldoLeopold Retweeted
gnarlytrombone ?@gnarlytrombone Feb 7
gnarlytrombone Retweeted George Stanley
I recall the MJS running house ads about how its columnists "make liberals see red." #sowing #reaping
= new reply since forum marked as read
