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
If you can’t swim with the sharks you shouldn’t be in the ocean.
Hi folks,
I’ve been a lurker for a while and just joined recently so that I could put in my 2 cents now and then. I met many of you at the gathering at Floyd’s recently (My name tag said “Senator Street Part II”)and we both had the feeling that some of you will become good friends over time.
As to the topic at hand – I think the idea of putting the idle chatter over to OT keeping the other forums cleaner and leaner to allow a more focused discussion on a particular topic was a good one. I don’t have the time during the day to log on at all – and in the evening I’m interested in following threads that interest me.
If there were some focused threads on a particular topic, perhaps at a pre-arranged time – that could be interesting if they took place at a time that was convenient. These could even be ‘hosted’ by a volunteer particularly knowledgable on that topic.
I disagree with the idea of censoring or limiting postings. The frequent posters have a lot of interesting and sometimes amusing comments. Yes, they could self-police to keep their comments from being repetitive, but I can easily scroll past yet another comment from a person whose particular ax to grind I already know.
Meanwhile, this blog has provided us with a lot of useful information, and we have been able to provide others with a lot of information that we have amassed over the years.
The idea of moving the OT to a separate tab is probably a good one – this way – if you’re interested in participating in the open chat you can and you can just as easily ignore it.
Keep it going Mr. B –
Eric
“Back in the site’s “golden age”, when it was freewheeling and guest commenting was permitted, it was much harder for a small clique of followers to dominate it.”
I doubt it. Could have been ten people commenting then and you would never know.
I agree with denton about the “For Sale” tab….it’ll clean up the Forum which, I believe, is mainly for advice and it may generate a whole new, much larger outlet. You could limit it in its scope if it becomes unwieldy.
I’ve been involved in online communities way before Al Gore invented the Internet… Genie, Compuserve, etc. I also moderate a couple of international literature mailing lists.
Ratings are plain stupid, imho, as is comment limiting.
Moderation ditto, except in egregious circumstances such as direct threats of violence, etc.
Equally silly, as pointed out by several above, is to think that new posters or ‘lurkers’ should be too intimidated to post. Some people will always just lurk, and that’s fine too. After all, they too contribute page views.
I don’t know what to say about day vs. evening, but it’s something I’ve found interesting to think about. Myself, I’m in the field daily until 2PM or so. I’m not going to follow Stoner on a bberry while I am working. So I often get in near the end of the day, but not usually at the beginning of a day, unless I am working from office or home.
But what I _have_ often thought about is this day vs. evening, and if I were Mr. B, it would bother me. It seems posters during the day log on from work, where they are getting paid by someone else. When it comes to the evening or weekends, when posters are paying for their own time, things are quiet, except a bit in the Forum. What does that say for the true value of the site?
The Forum has the potential to be the most interesting part of Brownstoner, and imo it’s getting overwhelmed. I would add at very least, a ‘for sale’ tab to get half the stuff off the Forum.
Last but not least, Typepad is limited. Run it on real forum software like PhpBB or WebWiz, then you can split things into multiple threads like Real Estate Values, Race and Class Warfare, Open Houses, Interior Design, etc etc. Some of the automotive enthusiast forums can point you in this direction, such as
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/index.php
Or you can just leave well enough alone. It really isn’t all that bad here, ya know.
denton
I’m currently somewhat of a “semi-regular” contributor to the forum side of this site but hardly ever contribute to the main pages unless the topic is about my home nabe, PLG. But that level of contributing hasn’t always been the case. I’ve been with Brownstoner since the site first began and, in the early years, with use of a different handle, I even used to be a “regular” on all the topics. But, eventually, I switched off the “send” button to choose the blog life of a Brownstoner lurker.
Why? Because of timidity? Hell no! If anything, I can get down and dirty with the best of the snarks on this site and have spent more than a little bit of time doing so. But, at a certain point, I grew tired of all the sniping, ignorant, sometimes intentionally flaming, and basically uncivil, juvenile discourse that anonymous internet blogging generally invites. I also had to ask myself why I was willing to drive up my blood pressure by engaging in so many heated discussions on a blog site that started out as one thing but had morphed into another. While the initial Brownstoner attraction for me was that it was an online community of Brooklynites who loved brownstone style housing and neighborhoods, I found that the site, over time, became increasingly more focused on Brooklyn as the most balkanized of boroughs. The insistence on neighborhood bashing (from Park Slope to Bed Stuy) and with endless chatter about “prime”, “gentrified”, “fringe” and “ghetto” nabes — all so loaded with code, outright racism, classism and a variety of other isms, made me question whether jumping into the fray to argue my opinions with a community of anons was a good use of my time. I concluded it was not!
Nevertheless, there are regular posters on here, like Montrose Morris, Bxgirl, Wasder, who don’t seem to give a damn about marching into what I consider to be senseless discussion fray in order to drive home a seriously valid point of social justice or of balance or fairness and ethics. That kind of commitment to principal makes me admire them greatly. At the same time, I find great pleasure in reading the incredibly nostalgic, wise and typically upbeat posts of folk like Nostalgia on Park Avenue or Bob Marvin and the resource-rich comments of posters like Vinca, Master Plumber, Smokey Chimp, Adamdahill and many others.
So, despite my choice to bypass most opportunities to comment on the more “political” discussions on this site, I nevertheless remain mildly addicted to being “here” and staying “here” for the forseeable future. Having seen where you have brought this site from since it’s earliest days, Jon, and having seen the cast of “regulars” change and morph over the years, I have no doubt you will keep it going, and actually build a better mousetrap in the process.
brg, I’m not posting on other thread’s today because I don’t have anything significant to add to any of those topics. Did I just blow your mind?
Gee B, you must be dizzy reading all these.
Comment limits and flagging creep me out – there’s a whiff of Orwell about them. Granted there’s no 1st amendment in this situation, but if reader can’t handle either a) disagreeable comments or b) be bothered to scroll past conversations they don’t wish to participate in, then why do they wish to participate at all? I don’t think this “issue” is about civility–this board remarkably civil considering the range of opinions and personaliies involved–it’s about controlling people’s communication and hanging a red letter on those some people don’t like.
I prefer an ignore button.