Let's Talk About Commenting
We twittered about this a few days ago, but we’d like to open it up for discussion: What can we do to improve the overall the quality of comments on the blog, to encourage lurkers to get involved without alienating some of the more active and, um, spirited commenters? We hear quite often from regular…
We twittered about this a few days ago, but we’d like to open it up for discussion: What can we do to improve the overall the quality of comments on the blog, to encourage lurkers to get involved without alienating some of the more active and, um, spirited commenters? We hear quite often from regular readers who feel uncomfortable, even intimidated, with the prospect of commenting. This isn’t surprising given the verbal beat-down one new commenter received from a gang of regulars a couple of weeks ago. Nor is the level of discussion going on in today’s Open Thread really where we’d like it to be. Short of active comment moderation, which really isn’t a practical option, what do you think we can/should do to elevate the quality of discussion and make newcomers feel more welcome? We’d be particularly interested to hear from some folks who usually hang back on the sidelines. It’s in the best interests of the blog and everyone who reads it to have as many people contributing their knowledge and opinions as possible.
Thanks,
Mr. B
see, dave. this is what mr b is talking about. stop acting like this is a sewing circle or something. does it really matter if i am male or female? keep it to brownstones and bullshXt somewhere else.
nuff said. randolph R.I.P.
Name: randolph
In Brooklyn Since: 97
On Brownstoner Since: 2007
Location: Brooklyn
Neighborhood: Fort Greene
Abode: Condo
Profession: none
Sex: Female
Age: 31
Website:
then why does your profile state “female?” Confused perhaps?
a “be nice” policy isnt necessary cuz for the most part everyone IS nice. except perhaps the what but since he’s been mr. b’s butt buddy frenemy forever now, i dont see him going away, nor should he even have to.
*rob*
no, seriously. i am a man and i do not run a clown service.
MrsCWB, you don’t have to know something to post. What if you had a question? Lots of people do it in the “Forum” section (I use the term lightly).
I thought that the off-topic banter was supposed to be delegated to the open thread. I often don’t bother with the comments because for the 10 or so legit opinions I have to wade through at least five times as many junkers. For the most part, though, I have the sense that the problem arises from a core group of regular commenters who use the blog as their personal chatroom.
If the condition of the comments is that important to you, I think that moderation is the only way to go. A couple of months where off-topic, incendiary, or other no-no types of comments are removed from the blog, and people will start to get the message. I
You might try a moderation technique similar to (what I think) Brooklynian does. There are several volunteer mods who try to enforce a “be nice” commenting policy. Any thoughts to enabling a few of the regular commenters with “guest author” status on the blog?
Well… I apologize for not having read all the reactions to this thread, but even unemployed, I really don’t have time for all of it. This is not a put down – it’s just that much as I enjoy reading this blog, and sometimes even following a discussion, my level of involvement/ knowledge on most of the topics is just not sufficient to have anything valuable to contribute in the comments. There’s really nothing you can do to this blog to change that (unless you change the blog). If you really want participation from someone like me, low-involvement contributions (polls, etc.) are the way to go, but even then – I’m not promising to be very active.
And that gets to to the initial question: what can you do to help someone like me comment more? Really, not much, short of waiting a couple years and seeing if I then feel educated enough to contribute my crystal-ball insights into the economy debate/ have developed aesthetics convictions strong enough that I feel like I should defend them every time/ etc. I’m actually pretty satisfied with the level of comments I find here, and quite horrified by the notion that we need to engage in some sort of real-estate version of an 18th century literary “salon”. This is just a blog to me… Keep it light, and let passionate people be passionate. As I see it, interventions should be kept to a minimum (a warning if some posters are forgetting their manners, a ban if they’re really being threatening/ racist/ sexist or whatever), but then again that’s just an opinion.
I rarely comment because by the time a topic is ten minutes old the SAME people have commented ad nauseum. By then someone has said whatever I want to say and beat the topic into the ground…and went completely off topic to talk about personal stuff since many of these people seem to know each other personally.
I end up looking at the pictures and moving on.