NYT's Look at Blog Commenters

This weekend, the City section of the Sunday Times took a front-page look at the nature of the commenting culture on local blogs (in addition to a focus on Brownstoner, Curbed, Gowanus Lounge, GerritsenBeach.net, and Roosevelt Island 360 all got ink), something New York City has in greater numbers than other cities. While it didn’t seem like a particularly new issue to us, hopefully it spread the gospel to the uninitiated. “For the past few years, blog comments sections, acting as virtual town squares, have offered residents around the country a forum in which to weigh in — and vent — on a wide spectrum of local issues,” went the article. “But given New York’s size and diversity, not to mention its fabled brashness, political energy and high emotion, its blogosphere is taking a particularly striking shape.” Yours truly was quoted about the no-brainer decision of allowing comments from the get-go of the blog, despite the fact that some of the established blogs at the time blocked comments. The piece wraps with a description of the Brownstoner End of the World party that took place last October and readers’ reaction online:

The next day, online, the partygoers spoke enthusiastically about the experience. Some noted that their virtual friends didn’t look like what they had expected. A poster named Slopefarm was shocked to discover that Montrose Morris was a woman. Ms. Morris got her own surprise, as she commented, tongue firmly in cheek: Slopefarm, good to meet you, too. I’m disappointed you didn’t have a stalk of organic, heritage, artisanal hay harvested by Bhutanese nuns between your teeth. You are in Park Slope, after all.

It’ll be interesting to see how much traffic the article generates—we’ll be able to report back in a few hours. Update: Traffic yesterday was about double the average for Sunday, but still not close to a normal weekday.
You Talkin’ to Me? [Brownstoner]