Engadget Shutting down their new comments due to negative response.
This is not the first time this has happened, but it is IMO happening more often. The Verge did it a while back; Gizmodo did it a while back. Some, like daringfireball, don't even allow comments. While others like hacker news and hashnode appear to handle it just fine.
Why do people feel they can hide behind a handle / username and say whatever they like - even if it may be offensive or defamatory.
How do you fix comments so things like this don't need to happen? Do you implement moderators and have to approve every single comment? That could take a lot of effort and possibly cost money.
Do you try to create an engine and look for specific keywords and block them?
Does not having a comments system hurt returning visits?
Is it the context of the post as the article states? Simply mentioning Apple or Android starts a war.
Curious about people's opinions.
I've run a gaming community with a general "Mess hall" forum for ~12-14 years now, and Engadget is making the same mistake I did a few times: expecting too much from their discussions.
From the article:
That's a matter of moderator opinion. I've seen overly sensitive moderators consider any strong opinion "hateful" merely because they disagree with it, or because it has the word "hate" in it. I hate politicians that try and push for backdoors into encryption, but it's really childish if a moderator would want to censor such an opinion.
So what? Again, it's moderator opinion that such debates don't add value. Nested comments help isolate these debates to as single thread.
So what?
At the end of the day, Engadget has failed to understand that comments are a form of content in and of themselves, and a draw for traffic in and of themselves (like on Reddit and HN). Sometimes they add meaningful points and counter points, sometimes they're hilarious, sometimes they carry strong opinion, sometimes they carry questionable logic, and sometimes they're flat out mean or stupid. That's how things go. You simply accept the bad that comes with the good, try not to play God when it comes to deciding which comments are valuable and which aren't, and moderate the really bad stuff.
Where you run into problems is when you get YouTube quality comments - the kind where spelling, grammar, punctuation, and any semblance of structure or intelligence is absent.