News-Record.com

The Charlotte Observer has done this and the comments on every story have degenerated into name-calling and, too often, race-baiting (from both whites and blacks). I mean, every single story ends up in gutter-level mudslinging - even the "American Idol" stories.

While I appreciate that you are trying to increase reader input (which is good), having published comments on each story only invites trouble. I bet staff morale at the News & Record will sink like a rock after the writers are subject to day after day of abuse.

Over at the Winston-Salem Journal we started with the "pick which stories to allow comments" route. It's served us well so far, and I think it's a good place to start ... the downside is still harkens to the "newspaper controlling the focus of the conversation" days.

Conversations tend to be civil, and we haven't had to delete many comments. The biggest danger we've faced is when folks who are involved in controversial stories want to add their brand of facts to the story...

John, I have no data to support this other than anecdotes and my gut: But on TexasGigs we have everything open for comment and have had little to no trouble, despite tackling some dicy issues. I believe part of the reason why is that our final submit button says:

"My momma would be proud of what I just wrote: Submit it!"

Several people have told me that it made them think better of a nasty comment. No clue if it's true, but with a million pageviews a month and about 40 comments a day, we only moderate about one a month.

Joe, comments are reviewed by a staff member before posting, right? Who does that and what percentage of comments are rejected?

I love that, Mike. Takes us back to our Southern roots!

You coming back to town anytime soon?

What are the questions you plan to ask?

Don't have them in front of me right now, but I believe they are name, age, e-mail address, gender, zip and whether you're a N&R subscriber.

Me, I argued for bank account number so that we could send that to the Nigerian scammers for anyone who violates the terms of use, but I got voted down.

I asked this before and remember the answer but am re-asking so you can re-answer and re-assure everyone (who may just be me). When we give you the above info, you will not share it or sell it to marketers, right? I will have the right to say "no, don't email me any advertising" or similar, right?

That's correct, Sue. You'll be able to opt IN for offers.

Yes, the online content producers on staff (of which I'm one) approve the comments that come in. I'd say about .5% of the comments (1 in 200) don't pass muster.

Another challenging situation with comments happens with reviews -- restaurant reviews in particular. This one from last week generated significant activity.

John, I'm not certain I see any value in allowing comments only on select stories, or select categories of stories. Comments should be allowed on all stories, or not allowed at all.

Have your technical staff looked at all into any third-party tools (some are free and GNU-licensed) for parsing comments before they are committed? It isn't possible to catch everything, of course, but you could catch a lot of annoying or offensive stuff and simply not post it, requiring no editorial intervention.

I understand the concern, however; for months I read the “Letters” online but now I rarely do so, specifically because of the quality (or lack thereof) of the comments.

Based on what Joe says, it sounds as if the Journal isn't having too many problems. Maybe it would be worse at the N&R because the N&R is considered by some locals to be “liberal,” something which has always CRACKED ME UP!!!

Joe, do you have any written standards for what is not permissible in comments you could share?

Tony, thanks. Also, I'll ask you the question that has been asked of me: Why do you hate America? :)

John, I'll give you my current answer to the question above, which frustrates and confuses the person who asks the question (or a variant of it):

"I love America. It is Americans who hate everything that makes America what she is that I hate."

Causes the blood vessels in the forehead and neck to bulge, with simultaneous head-scratching.

:-)

Wish I could get back home for a bit, but This Little Business is both distracting and impoverishing. I'll definitely let you know the next time I make it through town.

Saying this paper is not liberal cracks me up!
I brought this paper for 43 years, like most everyone in our area. There are no more NR boxes along our road now. Wonder why? Could it be the NR endorses only tax and spent folks, like tax hike mike. The NR endorsed him as one to save our tax dollars. He has raised taxes in each year except 2004. If I have time today, I will try and find the NR excat words on this.

John, I can remember reading a guide for evaluating comments, but that around a year ago and it's probably lost in the inbox now. Basically: Don't edit the comments, don't approve swear words, or anything that could be libel. If you're not sure about approving a comment then you ought to ask.

Here's a link to what we tell our readers in the Reader Reaction form: http://tinyurl.com/kj97j

And here's a list of the swear words we reject:
[List omitted for the sake of sensibility]

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