Comments on: Nick Denton wants to turn the online media world on its head

By: John Samuel αΩ

John Samuel αΩ — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 16:18:14 +0000

Nick Denton has successfully removed the only reason I ever left my feed reader and actually visited Gizmodo proper. I’m pretty baffled by how awful the new commenting system is. I mean, it’s really really really awful to the point of being completely useless. What took a few seconds to scan previously now takes 10x longer and it’s hard to get a sense of what discussions are happening without hunting around and clicking your mouse less than 50 times.

Horrible, horrible failure. Wow. I can’t believe how bad it is.

By: Snertly

Snertly — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 22:23:16 +0000

“Now I can say: your rebuttal will be given as much prominence as the original piece we will respect you, we will protect you from the mob and we will let you say your piece.”

Unless you’re rebutting Powwow or suggesting that Gawker articles should not double as high school slam book pages. In which case, your comment is likely to disappear and take with it all past and future comments. Denton designs a brave new world.

By: Snertly

Snertly — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 22:18:57 +0000

“Now I can say: your rebuttal will be given as much prominence as the original piece we will respect you, we will protect you from the mob and we will let you say your piece.”

By: Law enforcement training classes

Law enforcement training classes — Tue, 29 May 2012 10:39:13 +0000

I love this template but there is one problem I seem to be having with every computr I get onto and sign in with.Its the layout section.I think there are to many gadget boxes.They seem to be to cluddered together under the post box.

By: John McGuirk

John McGuirk — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 02:13:52 +0000

No. Grownups wait for another to finish talking before replying rather than interrupting their speeches.

By: CityZen

CityZen — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:42:38 +0000

I’m surprised that Google hasn’t created a meta commenting system that would allow you to rate commentators according to your own cares, then allow you to display and filter a website’s comments accordingly. I understand very well that making something like this functional is a major effort with many unanswered questions, but I think a well-done system would represent a real breakthrough in the nature of mass communication. Figuring out ways to shortcut the labor of lots of manual rating (without introducing ways to easily game the system), as well as avoiding the problem of “only seeing those who agree with me” must be worked out. Indeed, even deciding what values to rate (good/bad is not enough) would take some effort.

By: mis0hi0

mis0hi0 — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:36:33 +0000

“There is a very large community of loyal Gawker readers who have found solace elsewhere…” Where?? I need to go to that other place, too.

By: smilinglibrarian

smilinglibrarian — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:13:19 +0000

“…reinventing online journalism itself, by turning the traditional story model on its head.”
“…engage in via private IMs and chats …”
The issue here is it that all of this behind closed doors ‘commenting’ makes money only for the Gawker staff and Denton.

I am very curious to see what incentive there will be for participation. Should be a really interesting coming summer to see whether this new system flies or falls.

He took a risk by driving away some really talented, insightful, and entertaining commenters (I was never one – just an avid reader). Maybe this experiment will draw them to return … (I hope so. I miss the old Gawker terribly)

By: Chels Clinton

Chels Clinton — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:02:34 +0000

Clearly commenting is broken on most sites, especially places that use facebook as their tool. Techcrunch has devolved into a bunch of pointless noise ever since they moved over to it because the quality of the commenters drops dramatically when you open it up to something like facebook users, which are typically the bottom wrung of the internet’s intellect.

Sites that value users input need to raise the barrier to entry and not the other way around. If any schmuck on the street can drop in and comment it’s going to be a bunch of pointless trolling.

By: Guest

Guest — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:25:54 +0000

I was a commenter on Gawker for many years, and the comments Denton is making about the commenters is pure junk. In all my years there I never saw anybody actively “game” the system, and noboby was ever “silenced by the mob”. The only people who ever had the power to silence were editors and editorial delegates, who used it when they got insecure and boring (like Giz sometimes, Gawker and and Io9 now). The best comments were always brought to the forefront and if Denton wanted more moles and rats and quality sources he should have tried harder to get them instead of paying for iPhone prototypes and Brett Farve penis pictures.

Ordinarily I wouldn’t care about comments made on the internet, but Denton is actively shitting on the people who read his sites, and decided to take part and make them real communities. I know it’s just the miasma of marketing he’s concocted around the change, but it’s antagonizing to people who actually used to like it there. Stars are patronizing? You know what else is patronizing? To give time and attention to a site only to have the owner treat you with contempt and tell you to eff off.