NEWSLETTER
The ground outside my window is covered with snow. It’s April 15. I cannot believe these things.
April 15 is an odd day this year – Tax Day, Jackie Robinson Day, and the first anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing. Many things on which to reflect, I suppose.
I'll be back soon people. Promise. RT
— Javier Báez (@javy23baez) April 14, 2014
META: The Sun-Times has elected to do away with comments for now. An animating quote from managing editor Craig Newman:
The world of Internet commenting offers a marvelous opportunity for discussion and the exchange of ideas. But as anyone who has ever ventured into a comment thread can attest, these forums too often turn into a morass of negativity, racism, hate speech and general trollish behaviors that detract from the content.
In fact, the general tone and demeanor is one of the chief criticisms we hear in regard to the usability and quality of our websites and articles. Not only have we heard your criticisms, but we often find ourselves as frustrated as our readers are with the tone and quality of commentary on our pages ….
Again, we are not doing away with comments. But we do want to take some time and work on the qualitative aspect of how they are handled and how we can foster a productive discussion rather than an embarrassing mishmash of fringe ranting and ill-informed, shrill bomb-throwing.
And every purveyor of internet content everywhere said, “Yup. I feel you.” That said, although we’ve had our issues with the comments here at BN, recently moving to a registration requirement (something just about every other site out there has long required), I think the community here remains generally quite strong. That’s particularly true when you compare our discussions to the “morass of negativity, racism, hate speech and general trollish behaviors” that you find most other places. I commend the Sun-Times for a bold move to try and improve their comments, and I hope they find success.
The internet is a marketplace of ideas, and a web site is at its best when it functions as a community. I’m pretty proud of ours, but we all have to take ownership of the things we say, and recognize that they reflect on all of us here. I don’t agree with everything the collective you posts here, and I don’t always think that what you say is the highest reflection of what BN is about. But I do think that the fact that you can say it without fear of reprisal, so long as you say it thoughtfully and respectfully, is a fantastic reflection of what BN is about. May we continue to be that place, and never have to take any drastic steps.
