I've been noticing something on our Web site lately about Reader Comments. They seem to be getting a little more nasty and personal.
Before we launched our new Web site, one of my worries was a new role of playing traffic cop to comments submitted by online visitors. I anticipated fielding a barrage of negative, nasty comments - not toward the Times, necessarily, more toward subjects and issues written about in stories and opinion pieces.
When we went live, I was pleasantly surprised. We were getting a strong number of reader comments, it was almost two weeks before I had to make my first rejection. And that was because the comment provided a news tip I couldn't verify and post online.
Soon after that, the first nasty comment came in that I refused to post. Then another. Then a few more.
The acceptable comments still greatly outnumber those that can't be published. But the ratio has gotten a little smaller. I don't know if it's the weather or what, but people generally seem to be more angry right now than they were a couple of months ago.
I tend to be a little bit more lenient about online comments than I am about information submitted for the newspaper. I think there are different levels of expectations for discourse between the two products. Online visitors can accept things being a little more chippy.
Still, I thought I'd pass along a few red flags that will get your comments intercepted quicker than a Rex Grossman pass:
• Including obscenities merits an instant denial. Saying things that are blatantly offensive and tasteless will have the same result.
• Claiming that someone, a group or a business has done something illegal will have the same effect.
• It's OK to disagree and dispute a person's opinion. It's even OK to name that person, particularly if it's a response to a story. But it's not OK to get personal with the attacks. Doing so puts you on very thin ice. You'll be given a little more latitude in your comments about people I consider public figures, for better or worse.
• You can't use the Times' Web site, or the newspaper for that matter, to attack a private business. Take your gripe to the Better Business Bureau or the courts.
• Don't make claims or allegations that would need to be verified before being published online. I have neither the time nor energy to verify every accusation people make, so I don't bother with any of them.
Just remember, that Reader Comments either are posted in full or not at all. So be spirited, be active, but be careful. And be nice, if you can.
Thanks.
Before we launched our new Web site, one of my worries was a new role of playing traffic cop to comments submitted by online visitors. I anticipated fielding a barrage of negative, nasty comments - not toward the Times, necessarily, more toward subjects and issues written about in stories and opinion pieces.
When we went live, I was pleasantly surprised. We were getting a strong number of reader comments, it was almost two weeks before I had to make my first rejection. And that was because the comment provided a news tip I couldn't verify and post online.
Soon after that, the first nasty comment came in that I refused to post. Then another. Then a few more.
The acceptable comments still greatly outnumber those that can't be published. But the ratio has gotten a little smaller. I don't know if it's the weather or what, but people generally seem to be more angry right now than they were a couple of months ago.
I tend to be a little bit more lenient about online comments than I am about information submitted for the newspaper. I think there are different levels of expectations for discourse between the two products. Online visitors can accept things being a little more chippy.
Still, I thought I'd pass along a few red flags that will get your comments intercepted quicker than a Rex Grossman pass:
• Including obscenities merits an instant denial. Saying things that are blatantly offensive and tasteless will have the same result.
• Claiming that someone, a group or a business has done something illegal will have the same effect.
• It's OK to disagree and dispute a person's opinion. It's even OK to name that person, particularly if it's a response to a story. But it's not OK to get personal with the attacks. Doing so puts you on very thin ice. You'll be given a little more latitude in your comments about people I consider public figures, for better or worse.
• You can't use the Times' Web site, or the newspaper for that matter, to attack a private business. Take your gripe to the Better Business Bureau or the courts.
• Don't make claims or allegations that would need to be verified before being published online. I have neither the time nor energy to verify every accusation people make, so I don't bother with any of them.
Just remember, that Reader Comments either are posted in full or not at all. So be spirited, be active, but be careful. And be nice, if you can.
Thanks.
