Comment trolls are often used as an example of why blog comments are a waste of time, but a recent series by the Climate Desk showed how they can quickly be turned into human beings. Read more at paidContent »
Many publishers treat obnoxious comments as a problem to be solved — Above the Law takes the opposite approach, and embraces readers as they are. Read more at paidContent »
The new weekend editor at Gawker’s auto-focused Jalopnik blog got hired because he was a knowledgeable commenter on the site, an example of how the feedback loop between writers and readers can pay off for blogs. Read more at paidContent »
It may seem like a sideshow, or a service that can only bring noise and chaos to the news, but RapGenius and its approach towards annotation shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand just yet. Read more at paidContent »
Although many traditional media outlets and journalists see reader comments as having little or no value, publishers like Gawker and The Verge see them as a potential source of revenue — and even potential hires. Read more at paidContent »
Jeff Atwood, co-founder of Stack Overflow, has launched a new platform that he hopes will improve the nature of online comments by adding trust metrics — but there are no shortcuts to healthy online communtiies. Read more at paidContent »
After lining up some big backers including two Twitter founders, communications hub Branch is opening to the public. The service is trying to encourage online dialogues by drawing people into conversations that can be shared and preserved. Read more »
When Gawker Media launched its new commenting system earlier this year, founder Nick Denton said that he wanted to reinvent the way readers and writers interact around a story and turn the discussion into the most important feature of a post. Has he succeeded? Read more »
As a hot, buzzy start-up in private beta, Branch has enjoyed advanced hype thanks to some high profile users and backers. But it also suffers from misconceptions as well because it’s not quite clear to the public what it will be. Is it a form of a […] Read more »
Engagio, a social inbox that organizes people’s online conversations, is take a big step toward becoming a social network of its own. The Toronto-based start-up is rolling out a handful of new features including the ability to follow the conversations of other users. Read more »
At a time when everyone is talking about how important it is for commenters to use real names, Gawker is going in the exact opposite direction. And while that may benefit Nick Denton for all kinds of selfish reasons, it’s still an experiment worth watching. Read more »
Gawker Media founder Nick Denton says that he wants to fix the way that online comments work, but in order to do that he is having to reinvent Gawker itself — by trying to flip on its head the way that online content works. Read more »
Critics of reader comments often argue that they are worthless because they are filled with trolls, and not that many people read them. But despite these flaws, building community through comments and other social features is more important than it has ever been for online media. Read more »
Branch has gotten some attention for its new service, which offers a web-based platform for invitation-only discussions, as well as the fact that it is financed in part by two co-founders of Twitter. But is being less open a benefit for Branch or a disadvantage? Read more »
Writer-turned-venture-capitalist MG Siegler recently reignited a long-standing debate over whether blogs should have comments or not. Critics argue that comments are mostly noise and are a waste of time, but blogs that don’t have them risk being seen as just a soap-box for their authors. Read more »
A new commenting system at the New York Times has drawn fire from readers, but the motivation for the move is sound. If media companies want to behave like communities (which they should), they need to encourage their readers to “level up” and become more engaged. Read more »
Some news sites such as The Huffington Post use badges and other kinds of reward systems to encourage user engagement and positive behavior in their online communities. Could doing this help Google overcome the downsides of anonymity without banning users who don’t use their real name? Read more »
Some newspaper publishers have said that introducing Facebook comments has cut down on offensive commentary and boosted traffic. But it’s worth remembering that Facebook is not the cure for bad behavior, and that handing over comments to the social network means relinquishing control over something important. Read more »
While plenty of newspapers and other media entities are happy to use social tools like Twitter and Facebook to promote their content, few are really engaging with their readers on a regular basis, says Reynolds Journalism fellow Joy Mayer — but that is the future of media. Read more »
Online anonymity has been taking a beating recently, with the Gay Girl in Damascus affair and a recent piece by the former ombudsman at NPR criticizing anonymous comments. But allowing people to be anonymous has real value for society that shouldn’t be dismissed so quickly. Read more »
Polls generally flow in one direction with an organization looking to find information from a pool of people or a community. But Urtak, a small, New York startup is finding that democratizing polls unlocks a lot of interesting interaction, engagement and new information. Read more »
Newspapers seem to have a hard time accepting the “social” part of social media — a case in being the new policy introduced at a major Canadian newspaper, which tells its staff not to express personal opinions and not to respond to reader comments. Read more »
Facebook’s acquisition of group-messaging service Beluga and its rollout of enhanced commenting features to websites such as GigaOM are two further signs of the social network’s plan to become a key player in all of the various ways in which people communicate with each other online. Read more »
The new version of Digg, which launched yesterday after more than a year of development, doesn’t seem to be winning many fans. The most popular comments on the site’s relaunch are overwhelmingly negative, and hard-core users have spoken out about their dislike of the new features. Read more »
Blogger John Gruber of Daring Fireball says that he doesn’t believe that comments on most blogs add any value, and that they are often just “cacaphonous shouting matches,” which is why he doesn’t allow them. But despite the noise, we believe comments are worth having. Read more »
