A few months back I voiced my opinion on the mountains of comments that follow articles on our local newspapers and local TV websites. Along with being off color and antagonistic, many of the comments trail into ridiculous tangents and become personal bickering between participants, cluttering up what should be prime web 2.0 space.

A month later 9News/KUSA ran a story lamenting how mean and nasty people become in their anonymous internet conversations –  focusing on the made up concept of “internet rage.”

Part of my response was that there will always be trolls on the ‘net who derive a charge jolly out of scribing the most hurtful or outlandish thing.  I wrote the responsibility lies with the OWNER and OPERATOR of the message boards and news sites who ALLOW anyone and everyone to comment no holds barred.  Like other sites on the web that allow user interaction, constant moderation is needed to keep comments on topic and eliminate snarky off-topic jabs. I emailed the editors at 9News my post, as well as posting it on the comments section following the story.  (Yes I know – the irony.)

It seems that 9News did actually implement some changes.  I noticed today that a few stories now have “comments disabled.” following the story.

From a cursory review the stories sans comments appear to be of a more factual nature, such as “Cops searching for hit and run” and “Windows broken at DNC headquarters.”   Articles carrying a community feel, like “Changes to Wolf Creek Ski Area” and “217k register to vote” have their comments open.   (Read and shudder at your leisure.)

I would love a comment on the subject of comments by anyone at 9News.   Personally I think its a decent medium.  “Dog bites man” doesn’t need the pontification of every Joe Schmoe in town.  However I do enjoy reading opinions on community and city issues, and voicing my opinion on them as well.   That said,  open comments still need to be monitored and moderated.

Related posts:

9News and Comments
I Think it Would be Fun to Run a Newspaper