A surprising, passionate conversation
We knew the letter from the chairman of TIMCO was a big news story. It is not often you get one company publicly accusing the other of pirating employees and threatening legal action. At least not here.
But I didn't realize it would evoke such involved, generally intelligent discussion as it has at Debatables. Thirty comments and counting.
It becomes my latest prime example of why newspapers should enable comments on its stories. Passionate discussion among readers on a topic of intense interest. Some leads for us to follow. Maybe some understanding arising from disagreement.
Because our publishing system makes commenting on stories difficult, we created Debatables. We're in the midst of moving to Drupal, with the ability to enable comments directly on stories. Finally.
One of the common complaints about newspaper-based Web sites goes something like this: "You don't publish anonymous letters in the newspaper so why do you permit anonymous comments on the Web site." I don't like anonymous comments, either, but they fit with the culture of the Web. The comments on the TIMCO story demonstrate another good reason to permit them.
Would any of the commenters write a letter to the editor with their names? We'll see. I doubt we'll get as many as have joined the conversation. Some seem to have much to add and a good reason to hide their identity.
The world is changing.
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