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.
Brownstoner’s toast. Maybe he really is that stupid. I doubt it though. I can’t see why he’d waste his time running a real estate blog with completely inane comments from people who sound like they are 13 years old having useless arguments with various made up personalities, that no one not involved in the conversation would even read. Ever see the comments on Curbed? This is what you’ll be left with. It’ll be so dumb that even the handful of commenters with names whose comments are informative will stop posting, except those who have a service to sell, and even they’ll stop posting eventually when they realize there are only 13 year olds reading the comments.
On the other hand, it is possible Brownstoner knows this, and this change is about a business decision to evolve the site into something else (more commercial?) and the comments really aren’t the issue, he’s just trying to cut down on them. Stay tuned – I likely won’t. Just as well – it is an amusing waste of time, but still ultimately a big waste of time, to spend time reading here.
Sorry cobblehiller- certainly didn’t intend that.
z- tracking isn’t my intention- not trying to promote perniciousness :-). What I was referring to is that certain people do harass and sometimes post things that are above and beyond simple trollism. If someone complains, Mr. B can check and decide if the poster should be blocked. Name calling and arguing isn’t the issue- it’s posting links to awful pictures- and if you accidentally clicked on one of those thinking you’d see a lovely building and instead saw a photo of a man burned to death you’d know exactly the kind of thing I mean. The copy-and-paste spammer? Mr. B would have some way to block him because he can conceivably complain to gmail or yahoo and they would be able to track someone to block them.
It’s about censoring anyone- it’s about being able to stop people from posting someone’s personal information or porn links. And never under any circumstances would he publish anyone’s email address, which is what he’s said. If someone’s way out of line- and trust me, I’ve taken a lot of hits from the trolls so I know- what’s wrong with having them blocked? People can scream and yell and toss around all the insults they want but we all know there have been posts that go far beyond and I have no problem saying those should be blocked.
Some so-called guests have used the site to consistently bash a number of us over and over- they’re not posting anything useful, they’re just getting their rocks off at our expense. I certainly don’t advocate the thought police- Spoil Biff and Dave and the What’s fun? Never, not I. On the other hand it’s no fun to see them getting bashed over and over just for the heck of it. It brings
I support this change. I’ve been a guest on Brownstoner for a long time and have been reading less and less due to all the negativity and trolls. I’m hoping the elimination of guests will raise the quality of discussion here. Thanks for addressing this issue, Brownstoner.
“we will have an email address associated with your username that won’t get released to anyone under any circumstances.”
Exactly – I will have an e-mail address associated with my name. Regardles of the best intentions, that information could get out. I post anonymously because I want to REMAIN anymous, even to Mr. Brownstoner. Why would I trust him to keep information in confidence? Oh, and I don’t use profanity, or post spam. But I won’t be posting here anymore after today.
Finally. About time. And well done.
Begone ye trolls!
Mr. B …. Since you seem to be steering the blog clear of cowardly comments, lets take a moment to address something that has been on my mind for a few weeks. You made some blasting and unfounded comment about Mirrors bar/ lounge on Grand Ave in a posting that should have been dedicated to the farewell to Grand 276 (which btw was a wicked send off!!).
You got some heat about it from readers and you then instead of retracting the statement in the same form that you announced it, you just pulled the posting. I was shocked by your cowardly behavior and the contradiction to your current attempt to put BS to rest.
I can only hope that was an anomaly. Time will tell.
Ms. Guest
I just found this site through Patrick.net –the comments here are hilarious (and btw the What’s got it right). Hopefully tracking posters won’t ruin a good thing.
Very Happy Renter
LOL…
http://curbed.com/archives/2008/07/10/lessons_in_construction_safety_williamsburg_edition.php#comment-errors#comment-140035
Ysabelle, you giving out nooky today? Email me, I’ll meet you at the new hotel in Crown Heights.