Moving Forward
If you’re a troll or a spammer, you better try to get your last licks in now, because by Monday, the guest commenting function will be a thing of the past on Brownstoner. If you haven’t signed up for a user account yet, please try to do so in the next couple of days. (If…
If you’re a troll or a spammer, you better try to get your last licks in now, because by Monday, the guest commenting function will be a thing of the past on Brownstoner. If you haven’t signed up for a user account yet, please try to do so in the next couple of days. (If you don’t receive your verification email within a couple of minutes, just email us and we’ll verify you by hand.) If you already have a user account and voted for the elimination of guest commenting, please put your money where your mouth is and make an effort to get involved in discussions. Another to remember is that you are still anonymous when you comment with a username: Just pick a silly name like Cobble Hill Guy and stick with it; no other readers will be able to see your email address or know who you really are. Our hope and expectation is that the improved quality of the threads—along with our ability to boot anyone who steps out of bounds—will more than make up for any decline in the quantity of comments.
We know that there are a lot of long-time readers out there who’ve gradually been moving to the sidelines of the discussions as they’ve grown nastier and more inane, and hopefully they will take this as an opportunity to re-engage and take the sense of community back to its roots where we can have meaningful, useful discussions about real estate, architecture and the many issues that confront the borough and its neighborhoods as the inevitable wheels of change continue to turn.
There are going to be a number of new features coming to the site in the next few months, the use of which will also be enhanced by having a user account. The first of these, launching next week, involves a group effort at building a comprehensive restaurant guide for the borough. (Having a username is particularly useful because other readers can come to trust, or distrust, you opinions about restaurants.) Other features down the pipe include map-based mobile access of the Brownstoner archives, neighborhood emails and some new service-oriented improvements in the architect and contractor spaces.
Big mistake. You have a lively comments section, that is open to everyone. This will severely restrict commenting and kill this blog. Why do people care about too many comments. Ignore the ones you don’t want to read.
“Thanks, this will definitely help your website. Now what should be implemented next is a removal of commenting privileges if someone just comes into the discussions just to get a rise out of others. It’s counter-productive and childish.”
Or does not support my (our) Point of view. I think this is a major turning point in the campaign. The Asshat are getting slaughtered and decide to change the rules now, this is very convenient for this Blog.
I wonder who will get these “commenting privileges” gwbrubaker?? You see at this point everything is going down the drain. No one can (within reason) make a case for buying a house now, cheering on the Mutant Asset Bubble or servicing hugh debt loads.
If I get removed from this Blog, that will be the beginning of the end of the war…
The What
Someday this war is gonna end…
I’m really shocked that folks are choosing not to take part in the site simply because they now need an actual user name. How lame! There will still be interesting banter and great debates!
great solution…
Yeah, longtime anonymous/guest/Brooklyn homeowner/daily reader/occasional commenter/nice, civil person here who’s not crazy about the switch. I actually read B’stoner for the freewheeling commentary, and chiming in is easy.
You are going to lose lots and lots of people.
Yes, the discourse will be more civil, but it will be a lot less interesting and gloves-off.
I disliked the repeated text spammer and the occasional flame war, but I think there are better ways out there. Character limits. Moderators, that sort of thing.
I lament the passing of this community.
LOL white people LOL
I’m really shocked that folks are choosing not to take part in the site simply because they now need an actually user name. How lame! There will still be interesting banter and great debates!
Actually, I suspect this move will backfire on the regulars here. Now you’ll actually have to deal with each other and the inevitable “power struggles” to determine who Mr. B likes best. By the time its over, you’ll look back with nostalgia on many of those “guest” posters. However, the guests will be gone and you’ll be going insane here in your non-anonymous prison, like an animal rubbing itself raw against the bars of its cage.
Congratulations on that.
Not that anyone should care, but I will not be signing up and as a result of not being able to say anything less likely to view. It’s like rubbernecking at a crime scene – you hang out to see the mayhem but you’re not giving your name to the officers.