I’m a lurker on every site I visit that doesn’t allow comments.
I don’t select reading material with comments allowed or not as a criteria but, as a long time comment reader, it’s sometimes amusing to watch public sentiment change on issues over time. When certain unconventional ideas are first broached (examples: same sex marriage, marijuana legalization, driverless cars, abolishing amateurism in college sports) they are usually howled down. But if proponents maintain their support of a good idea, after a while you see more and more converts and then one day we’re all astounded to see polls reporting 58% of the public wants weed decriminalized.
A good few months back I read a story about something on a local paper, maybe in the Boston area, for an online newspaper it was damn well set out and nice to look at.
Anyway the comments were discussing social housing and handouts etc., and one honest chap, who was very much against such wickednesses explained that he knew whereof he spoke because he had spent 34 years administrating these things, and they were all crooks etc…
As I said: comedy gold.
The Chicago Sun-Times has temporarily shut down comments on their site. Most comments on newspapers sites are nothing more than knee-jerk reactions. I use them to gauge the retrograde motion of the electorate.
I still read the BBC headlines that come with Firefox, so I guess I will read a site that doesn’t allow comments. But I definitely prefer to have them, and will go to a site much less often if they remove them or add some ridiculous hoops (like Huffpo did.)
For me, it has everything to do with being able to voice my opinion, and very little to do with being able to read responses. It’s just really annoying to have a response come up in my head and not to be able to express it to anyone. Occasionally, with the BBC, that’s why I will come and post here instead–sharing the link and then posting what I think.
I know there are a lot of people who have no interest in what I say, and that’s fine. But I have interest in saying something where the possibility exists that someone might read it. Not everything I read engenders a response, and not all of my potential responses are all that compelling. But when I read something that deserves a response, I want to be able to give it.
I find it odd that so many of you object to comments because you don’t want to read them. That idea did not even enter my mind. Yeah, there are plenty of sites where I don’t want to read the comments. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to have the ability to leave one. Clearly someone is reading the comments.
See, that’s exactly the type of site I will not go to, because what you read specifically invites comments, and I find reading without being able to respond to be a very frustrating experience.
There are some sites that just aren’t the type of thing where you need to leave comments. I don’t feel bad about, say, going to Akinator, nor do I ever feel the need to comment on Netflix (even though they actually have a comments section–that doesn’t seem to have many trolls.)
But a site that’s about other people telling stories, without being able to respond? Yeah, that’s worse than DeviantArt.
If most sites were run by experts, I might agree. But most aren’t. A journalist, for example, is almost never an expert on the topic they are speaking about. Yet online newspapers are the worst about shutting down comments. The places that have actual experts tend to encourage comments, because the experts want to educate.
Newspapers tend to shut down comments because they think people are being driven away by them. And I guess there are some people like that, but the way to deal with looking bad is to hide comments, making them available by click. That way people who don’t want them don’t have to see them, but those who it makes feel included get to feel included.
I still don’t get this mindset that people comment because they think they know more than everyone else. People comment for the same reason they talk. People like to communicate with each other. That’s why social networking is so big.
So, you value the opinions of others so much that you’re absolutely unwilling to read another person’s opinion unless they also provide you with the ability to simultaneously read multiple other people’s opinions?
Right then.
You mean, like Weather Underground, and Google Maps, and MLB.com?
Hmmph.
Now I feel the need to check whether any of the sites I visit allow comments. I don’t believe I have ever noticed one way or the other.
What’s so bad about DeviantArt … they allow comments.
Only nice ones, though.
Really? I wasn’t aware of that. You put in a comment panning a piece of work, and it gets bounced?
It strikes me as a silly rule. I could see, “Keep criticism constructive” to keep trolls from running amuck, but no criticism at all?
There’s some truth to this, but there are a lot of female YouTube personalities who have to put up with a lot of harassment if they leave comments on. I don’t see it as a cut and dry issue. It’s one thing to not be able to take criticism, but I think it’s perfectly reasonable to turn off your comments if a preponderance of users are harassing you for being a woman instead of commenting on your content.
If I encounter a site with comments off, I don’t usually care, but I do often wonder what made them decide to disable comments. I’ve encountered blogs where the author flat out stated that they didn’t want to hear dissenting opinions, and so turned off the comments. I would stop reading a blog like that. It’s all in the intent, IMO.
I don’t read the comments because no matter the topic it always turns into partisan bashing and racism. I have no idea if any sites I read allow comments or not because I stop reading when the article is done.
I don’t understand this topic at all. I don’t think my online banking site has a place for comments. What would I say? “I wish I had more money in this account.” Should I boycott it?
There are websites, such as this one, which are purely sources of information. Comments aren’t needed.
I understand perfectly why many bloggers don’t allow comments- as often as not, two or three idiots, crazies, wiseacres or trolls take over the comments section entirely. Who wants to deal with that kind of nonsense? If I had a blog of my own, I’d probably never bother reading the comments.
OCCASIONALLY, there are very thoughtful and articulate commenters, but they tend to get drowned out by the jerks with too much time on their hands.
AAAAAND there are a lot of female Youtube personalities that don’t disable comments on their videos. Some of the most popular Youtube personalities are female and often discuss hot topics: Ana Kasparian of the Young Turks, Jenna Marbles and Felicia Day who’s inventing her own network right now. Anita Sarkeesian disable comments in her videos, but i think it’s for the same reason online newspapers do: she don’t wanna hear any backtalk from the scum who infest the Internet with their own opinions.
Well, if it got you more money in the account …
Seriously, not all Internet sites need comments. But most informational sites should have a comments section, I think. As for the Straight Dope … what do you think this message board IS?
By “this one”’ I meant my bank’s web site, which I had previously mentioned. Not the Straight Dope. Sorry about the confusion.