Comments on: When Is It Okay To Close a Comment Thread?

By: Arienne

Arienne — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 17:25:03 +0000

Oh, netmeg. We might be soulmates.

By: Nick Norris

Nick Norris — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 16:50:31 +0000

It’s funny, because recently I visited a post from someone I follow on Twitter, and the post left a LOT of room for debate; however, when I went to post a comment, I couldn’t find the comment form. I replied to the bogger asking him why he would write such a provocative post and not allow people to comment on it. He responded back by sending me over a couple links explaining why he doesn’t allow comments on his blog. Personally, I think that preventing discussion gives off the impression that “what I say is more important than what you say, and I’m not even going to give you the opportunity to prove me wrong..” But that’s just my opinion.

Personally, I take the unmarketing approach and have a pretty loose comment policy. I will close down comment threads if they get too far out of hand, but that’s pretty rare for me. It may sound a little cliche’ but I think allowing your users to engage on your blog is much more important than making whatever point you are trying to make.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 17:35:15 +0000

It’s interesting how relative anonymity on the net encourages ordinarily decent people to lash out with a huge array of hateful, sexist, racist, or just plain disrespectful things they would never say in person. I have only thought about closing comments on one blog entry, in which it became clear that the volley between me and a guest was not only going anywhere and getting less respectful, but was also causing me significant stress. The conversation ended before I did anything, but if it happens again on my personal blog, I would feel justified in acting sooner. Company and business blogs probably have more factors to consider before closing comments, but I think setting and enforcing rules for their own space is entirely appropriate.

By: Lisa Barone

Lisa Barone — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 15:19:51 +0000

In terms of justification, I can see leaving one last comment explaining your reasoning, however, the reaction from the Web in Alexis’ case seemed completely ridiculous. There’s one thing to say, “hey, things are getting out of control, we’re shutting it down”, and being dragged through the streets until you write a full post explaining your actions. But I can appreciate the sentiment. If you regularly encourage A, it’s hard to suddenly pull a B.

By: Gabriele Maidecchi

Gabriele Maidecchi — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 14:32:54 +0000

I think it ultimately comes down to the specific case, there’s no set rule apart from the obvious ones (racist comments etc). I think that every message contributing to the discussion has the right to be also controversial if needed, and I am a big hater of censorship of any form. However, I understand that in some situation there’s no much room for mediation, and that’s why I refer to a case-by-case policy.
So far I haven’t had the need to shut down any thread or delete any comment, but since my blog isn’t exactly the most popular kid of the group, that’s kinda easy.

By: Dave Harrison

Dave Harrison — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 14:22:21 +0000

Lisa:

We’re reposting this from Business Insider.

We’ve been surprised that there’s not more discussion about this issue in the blogosphere. We launched our blog at http://www.tradewithdave.com just about a year ago. The growth has been amazing, but we still haven’t found a manageable strategy to deal with the feedback loop.

We know enough about the wealth of networks, Metcalfe’s law, Lorenz attractors and Mandelbrot to know that we cannot completely unleash exponential growth until we have a feedback loop. We’ve had to choose between selling out our white space to Google Adsense and then turn those same dollars over to staff that would moderate the feedback loop. It didn’t make sense to us to be a gerbil on that wheel, but we still haven’t figured it out and we have tens of thousands of loyal monthly readers for a small blog.

Not only is the issue of feedback and free speech a challenge, the technical solutions are also tough although gradually improving. Whether you use Disqus or IntenseDebate as a management tool or Facebook, Google, etc. as part of the Open ID standard, you still have to deal with the tech. Just try to post something on Huffington Post and you see how wonky it can be. BI is a great site, but sometimes the tech exhibits those same traits and it doesn’t work that great on an android mobile.

We know enough about our readership to know that enough of their profile-driven behavioral economics would lead to advertisements on our website that don’t reflect our gestalt. In light of the reality of a tiered internet as approved in the recent FCC regulations, the stakes for the use of the web as a publishing platform have only been raised. Odds are that bloggers will wake up one day and find themselves thrust into the baccarat area of the casino where the little signs on the table read “$500 minimum.”

In the meantime we’re still trying to figure out if the river that is the internet is contained within the name given by the native Americans to the Susquehanna river….. “mile wide… knee deep” as we keep carefully wading across feeling with our toes for that unexpected deep spot.

Dave Harrison
http://www.tradewithdave.com

To read our article on the non-neutral nature of net neutrality, titled A Movable Beast, click here; http://tradewithdave.com/?p=4261

By: Freedom of speech

Freedom of speech — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 06:06:33 +0000

i have to admit that. it seems to be a social skill people adopt to just sit and watch until things are messed up.

if its a private board/website/blog its my turn to decide. its diffrent from censorship by goverment , cause i have to admit the rules, while there is noch chance to deny. except from going elsewhere….. but where to?

i dont force users to look if the dont like stuff, the can just close it. i tried that several times with some goverments, sadly it doesnt work….

By: Joshua Dorkin

Joshua Dorkin — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 05:32:28 +0000

Most forums and various other communities die because the admins can’t or won’t moderate and close discussions. They get overrun with spam, nastiness, and other nonsense.

One of the best ways to strengthen your community is to create a sense of order, and to let your members know that there are limits that they can’t cross. Otherwise, what results is chaos – and that chaos has a seriously detrimental affect on your brand – if you survive it.

By: Tony Verre

Tony Verre — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 21:00:22 +0000

Lisa,

Another great post. Closing down comments, or not allowing comments period, is a ballsy move for blogs, and ballsy for anyone. Period. Whether you’re celebrity or not, any time you take away the “mystery person’s” right to voice an opinion you’ll always get called out on it.

It’s safe to say that I’ve never had this problem where threads get out of control, that comments need to be shut down. However, that said, I wouldn’t have a problem killing them off if things got out of hand. Your guidelines/rules for when to kill them off seem to be extremely reasonable.

Community is a gelatinous word for me, especially when it occupies the same space as blogs or forums. Simply put, many claim there is one when there isn’t one there. Just a random sampling of folks. Community, in my opinion, is one of those “new-speak, buzz words”: overused and pretentious. Very few truly have one.

The other half of the coin is that some folks post just to boost commenting (I admit that I’ve done this once or twice) and post is engineered to make people spit piss and vinegar. How do shut down something like that? Can you? Considering it’s your post that got the reaction it was looking for?

By: Mike M

Mike M — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 20:16:36 +0000

/thread