You have spoken. We have heard. We agree. The level of discourse in the comments following blog posts has declined substantially since we first started in 2004. I won’t go in to all the reasons behind this but it involves an evolution in the way people use and interact with blogs, as well as the time the bloggers here have available to moderate. Over the coming months we will be making changes to the website to better your experience, as well as, hopefully, increase the value of the discussions that are being had on this site. Here are a couple of the near term changes our awesome website admin team, Chaitan, Kunjan, and new team member Vishal are getting set to roll out as early as today:
- You will now have the ability to “Login” to leave comments. This means you can use your Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. ID to serve as your login to leave comments on SM. Why should you choose to do this? Well, we want everyone to be able to tell (even if it is via an anonymous Google/Facebook/Twitter account) who the people are that leave the best and most substantive comments here at SM, the people that are contributing an edifying perspective. We also want people to know who repeatedly derails comment threads by violating our comment policy so that our bloggers can more quickly and effectively moderate comment threads.
- You can continue to leave comments totally anonymously as always. BUT…starting September 22nd these comments will be hidden by default (collapsed) and most people will never see them unless they take the time to uncollapse them. For practical purposes this means if you want to leave comments with total anonymity, very few people will actually see that comment.
The new comment system is in testing mode so please use this thread or the “Contact” link at the top of our homepage to send us feedback about any bugs you have found. Thanks, and please let our wonderful admin team know if you like!
How about allowing comments for the news section as well?
@Tom: That’s in the works. Not too distant future.
Nice.
awesome! looking fwding to the anons disappearing too.
So no more comments like this:
WHAT???? I CANT BELIEVE THIS!! THIS REMINDS ME OF HOW ___________ ATTACKED _________ AND THEN CAUSED THE ____________ PEOPLE OF ____________ TO COMMIT GENOCIDE.
Under topics labeled “humor?”
bility to see the commenting history of people. This makes it easier to identify the professional trolls vs people who just has brain fart.
And an edit button…..Grrrr…wasn’t done with the last comment
No edit button. That is what the “preview” button is there for. 🙂
If this would prevent people from spewing venoms and motivate them to engage in constructive debates, then I am for it. But what if the debates were dragged into different directions by those who had no problems coming out from their closets (eg: Suki Dhilon and his view about Islam/Muslim)?
Reading comments is another thing I enjoy doing at SP. I think the new rule will reduce the number of comments drastically.
The new rules may help reduce bullies via easier moderation and hopefully encourage new voices to step forward.
there’s a problem with edits: you can go and change comments which others have responded to in their original form. though at discover magazine, where i blog, they installed a feature to allow you to edit your comment for 5 minutes after the initial posting, which i think is useful for many.
Yay! Look forward to trying out the new comment style.
o man, how much do these Google, Facebook, Twitter accounts cost? its classism i tell u.
blaming anonymous commentators for the decline in discourse is like blaming hindus and modi for the gujarat violence
well, at least rahul and pg can get in touch with each other now
Oh come now Manju, with the amount of time you likely spend in front of a computer I have no doubt you have at least one of each, likely more for those…under the table dealings.
Agreed. Once you are forced to login I will place the blame squarely on you.
Most sites that allow you to “edit” your comment, put a star next to your comment if you edit it, so that people know that the comment was changed in some sort of fashion.
The preview thing is worthless because people can just read what they wrote right in front on them. Why push a preview button to preview what is right in front of you?
preview is useful for HTML tags.
@16
loooollllllllllll
Abhi, will cross dressing still be okay?
Question for Abhi: Is it possible to be non-anonymous without having one of those Facebook, Google, Twitter accounts? I mean, you don’t want alienate your geriatric constituency, do you, not that I have a personal axe to grind? Hah!
I agree with Manju@14 and Abhi@17 that making commenters log in will accomplish very little to clean up SM. You need stronger medicine. Just delete the comments that you as responsible bloggers think are offensive. You don’t have to do it 24X7 and you don’t always have to be right. But if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, delete the damn thing!
People who frequent SM to win battles and vanquish their opponents, rather than merely exchange views, are rewarded every time you leave their poison-dipped arrows mounted on the wall like so many hunting trophies. Don’t give them the satisfaction of putting their phenomenal wit and attitude on public display, and they will soon disappear.
I have sometimes wondered if there is a definite editorial policy at SM that is unduly skewed towards freedom of speech. But you must realize you are not the Supreme Court and you don’t have a judicial and ultimately a social responsibility to consistently make the right calls. Trust your judgment as to what is offensive and you will not be wrong.
We have only two choices. Accept the censorship, which we know will be free of any hidden agendas, from a great group of people who are known to encourage free speech but may occasionally confuse dissent with offensiveness OR watch SM turn into a dark alley where one could get mugged anytime or a place where one could get humiliated by verbal hoodlums for simply making a comment.
Besides Facebook and Twitter, we support OpenID. Chances are you have an account with a website who is already an OpenID provider. Check here to find out if you do.
http://openid.net/get-an-openid
Great going!
Abhi, can you elaborate on this? I thought Wry and Rahul did an excellent job on your recent “Music Video” blog post. Despite the alleged grandstanding and rhetorical points and inaccuracies, I thought the level was quite high. Even the trading of insults was done in a spirit of bonhomie and camaraderie. Just curious as to where that stands on your yardstick.
It will be based on OpenID so as long as you have an email account on some major webmail site you will be ok. I will let Chaitan elaborate.
But then I could argue that Manju should be banned for that offense on that very thread. 🙂
New system or not, we bloggers cannot dedicate more time to policing comments, only less and less time. This new system will allow us to moderate more efficiently and it will allow us to have to deal with less “drive by commenting” since anonymous comments will be hidden by default.
I’m not happy about the new system. I don’t like the idea of having to log-in just to comment, it’s a pain. I think we’ll just see the same people commenting over and over instead of the large variety of commentors and opinions we have right now.
I think we’ll just see the same people commenting over and over instead of the large variety of commentors and opinions we have right now.
i think that’s the point 🙂 i am happy.
I think as we start using using the new system, some of your questions will have obvious answers.
Oh wait, that didn’t work. There, fixed it. I think the new comment system is now live. Please let me know if you see something obviously broken.
Just Testing
Yes, yes. It works. 🙂
ding dong, king kong.
i wonder how head shots are going to change the discussion. will people be intimidated by my good looks? 🙂
lol! they will certainly be a distraction. 😉
Thanks for being one of the early adopters and testers of the new commenting system.
you have sideburns? This totally changes things.
Yo. You mean I can actually leave SM for a few hours and have a real life? And not worry about commenters having an anonymous warfare while I’m gone? I can dig that.
Testing. I’m testing to see if I can use a different handle than my twitter one.
props to the new system. i did the integration with social profiles.
i “dig”. 🙂
i changed my name. awsim.
testing second name change.
ok, i found the character limit for the names. also, the fact that it changes the names for previous posts might get a little confusing at some point if people look through old comment threads.
I thought this would reduce confusion. How can it be more confusing to NOT keep track of changing names?
“I thought this would reduce confusion. How can it be more confusing to NOT keep track of changing names?”
people refer to their interlocutors by name in a thread. if there’s a retroactive name change later the thread will be somewhat confusing as some people will refer to people who aren’t part of the conversation.
Testing to see if I can change my name.
fwiw, i don’t care about the name change. kind of like it. i’ll always have “razib” in my handle. just realized it’s kind of a way to erase your record partially.
Good Idea to start with !
I just changed my e-mail address. Just to see if it works. I could pull one picture out from my archives (circa 1960s) which shows me with sideburns and bell-bottom….Nahhh!
I suppose the “level of discourse” will be below par if one doesn’t agree with the views of Abhi and the rest.
I think the new system will be good. Thank you. I also like how replying to a specific comment is possible although it would be nice if the response comment was right below the original comment, if you know what I mean. Kinda like the Gawker site.
I suppose the “level of discourse” will be below par if one doesn’t agree with the views of Abhi and the rest.
fwiw, i’ve been commenting since 2004, and i’m way out of the median politically in my views re: most of the collective. i’m also in the minority of commenters. just means you have to know your audience, and be cautious. it might not be “fair,” but it’s called the real world. weblog discussions are engineering, not philosophy 🙂
taz, i’ve been know as “the guy with sideburns.” i axed on FB whether i should get rid of them, but the consensus was no.
yeah major RESPECT to the tech powers here at SM.
This is AWESOME!
I LIKE. Props to the techies!
Yes, and this reply feature is pretty awesome as well.