Comments On Articles Should Cost Money

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HardOCP News

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What is going on with all these articles like this lately? What kind of site are you running where reading the comments is like falling into "a pit of maggots?" :eek:

Scroll too far down a thoughtful piece by accident, and it’s like you’ve fallen into a pit of maggots. Here’s what we should do: Get rid of comments. The end. Article over. But failing that, there is a way to save comments and shore up the flagging news industry simultaneously. It is this: Make comments cost money.
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A pit of maggots? Yes
Pay to comment? No

But sometimes the comment section can tell you how people feel about the story or the writer. Just checkout Yahoo's news comments, majority of them are regarding the writer leaving out vital information (picture/video/names).
 
By that logic we should require the authors to pay for the tripe that passes as journalism. Maybe the comment section would be less angry if the author was less stupid?
 
well technically they're already charging us to be on their site in the first place by way of ad revenue.
 
thejokker said:
By that logic we should require the authors to pay for the tripe that passes as journalism. Maybe the comment section would be less angry if the author was less stupid?
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even great articles' comment sections fall prey to trolls; relative anonymity mixed with a great potential for attention = juicy opportunity. :(
 
troll comments get deleted slower than comments with backed by sources correcting author's misinformation.
 
Steve, take a look at any article with controversial topics. I suggest anything that is D... political hot topics, Marriage equality, stars (more so black stars) doing something stupid. Check news sites like MSN.

Seriously after I read an article I force myself to close the page. If I read the comments I just feel horrible. Heck, even a tech news site I read and their coverage of E-Rate makes has poo poo comments.
 
Parmenides said:
troll comments get deleted slower than comments with backed by sources correcting author's misinformation.
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HAHA! True. :)

Some web sites, the comments are just horrible. Liberal vs. conservatives, cats and dogs living together. End of the world type shit. Even if it's a young girl getting hit by a car, you get the "Obama sucks, it's his fault" type of comments. It sucks, but I chalk a lot of those up to human spam. Pay to comment? No way. You'll have idiots paying to comment to post troll posts, then they get deleted, and they complain that they PAID to have that comment there.
 
This guy just doesn't seem to get it.

Remove comments, lose most of your traffic.

Without a comments section, you are lucky to get one read through of an article. With comments people keep checking back for replies, and will argue with people and keep coming back, getting a little banner ad displayed each time.

Without a comments section you don't have a community, and without a community your blog/site/whatever is less valuable.

Comments drive traffic, and traffic drives income, if you are making money from your site. it's that simple.
 
How about a lic to be on the internet. 99.9% of the troll comments would go away if you knew the real person behind said comment and and where they live.
 
That will be $2.00 each, [H] takes paypay, visa and mastercard :D:D
 
That's what moderators are for, to delta offensive comments. If people continue to troll they should be temporarily banned and eventually permanently banned. Of course someone can sign up with a different email etc, but what a hassle just to be annoying.
 
Bitcoin or some other block chain based currency is the answer.
Incentivize good content by monetizing both the articles, and the comments, listen to Andreas Antonopoulos talk about this, he has some clever ideas.
 
Author? IMO they are not existent nowadays, basically every news article is just copied and pasted all over the interwebs
 
Most people who comment don't even read the article they just skip right to the end and make a comment about how the writer/web site picked a outlandishly over the top title for an article usually filled with nothing but random bullshit that is of little conviction and has no real tie to anything of any value. Most people know this ahead of time so they skip the article and go right to the bottom and bitch about it.
 
Also, how are moderators an answer. That in of itself is nothing but censorship. We don't like bullies, so we will bully anyone who makes comments that we think are mean and meant to bully someone. Ironic much?
 
actually what is driving me nuts are hundreds of fake reviews on amazon or paid reviews. I saw one lady post on 10 different weight loss supplements that she lost 10 pounds, she should be 30 pounds by now and lost 100 pounds lol.

However I was shopping for a bed, about 10 latex or foam beds on amazon are all made by the same chinese firm under 10 different brand names. Hundreds of fake reviews and then a few 1 star legit reviews. Luckily I found the dreamfoam brand.
 
thejokker said:
By that logic we should require the authors to pay for the tripe that passes as journalism. Maybe the comment section would be less angry if the author was less stupid?
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NO! SHUTUP! Maybe your stupid... stupid.
 
One thing is for sure, you can tell a lot about a site by its comments. If you see this a lot 0 comments next to every article, that site has little to no community feedback.

On comments in general, let's say ten thousand people read an average news item or article. Of that number, maybe only one hundred of those people will even look at the comments section. Of that one hundred, only one or two people will actually make a comment. Obviously those numbers change when it is a hot button topic, etc. etc. but you can look at the replies and views in any forum and tell that's the way it works.
 
Comments are expected now. I stopped visiting CNN's website after their recent removal of comments on most of their articles.
 
rudedog said:
How about a lic to be on the internet. 99.9% of the troll comments would go away if you knew the real person behind said comment and and where they live.
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So really, by when you talk about a "lic" to be on the internet, what you're really talking about is some sort of database where any random person can look up personal details about anyone else, such as who they are and where they live?

I hate people who troll, but at the same time, I feel that it's important to be able to speak your mind without fear of personal retribution. Many think that making the internet more like real life is the solution. Often you hear, "You wouldn't say that if you were standing right next to the person!" which is likely true, but why? There are many reasons why someone might be afraid to express their mind when in the presence of someone else, and in many cases it might come down to simple fear and intimidation.

-Would you feel free to leave a negative comment about a restaurant if they were able to pin that comment to you and perhaps treat you differently next time you go there?

-Would you feel free to comment on political articles if you worked for an organization that had strong political views of their own that might not line up with yours? (we already know what happens when someone in an organization like Mozilla actually speaks their mind...)

-Would you feel free to comment on issues involving a particular race, if you lived in a neighborhood that was primarily comprised of that race?
 
Steve said:
One thing is for sure, you can tell a lot about a site by its comments.
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Reminds me of the CNN methodology, where basically if it is an article that talks about something conservative, the comments are open and everyone is having a field day. If the article is talking about something liberal, especially stuff pandering to the black community and all of their racist opinion pieces, comments will magically be disabled. Hmmm, wonder why?
 
GotNoRice said:
Reminds me of the CNN methodology, where basically if it is an article that talks about something conservative, the comments are open and everyone is having a field day. If the article is talking about something liberal, especially stuff pandering to the black community and all of their racist opinion pieces, comments will magically be disabled. Hmmm, wonder why?
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Yup, their selection of which articles to allow comments on is an blatant demonstration of their bias.
 
Good sites knows that comment are good. I visit one site for comments only.
 
Usually when I read comments it's always a complaint about the subject of the article ie: "Why does Yahoo keep posting about Kim Kardashian?" However, these articles are for people that do these sorts of comments. They still get their daily clicks from these very people.
 
You know I don't understand why some websites and some users here have such a problem with dissenting opinions or meanies especially on a medium like the internet where you have options to block or ignore.

I was watching Linus the other day on his tech channel and on one of his videos her mocks the trolls by saying "Please leave a comment below and write anything you want like how much of a terrible father he is, etc" and I thought that was a great way to deal with trolls. Trolls only feed off anger and rage.

Now some trolls needs to moderated. That's why you have mods. Simply warn once, ban on second offense if it violates the rules.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041110817 said:
This guy just doesn't seem to get it.

Remove comments, lose most of your traffic.

Without a comments section, you are lucky to get one read through of an article. With comments people keep checking back for replies, and will argue with people and keep coming back, getting a little banner ad displayed each time.

Without a comments section you don't have a community, and without a community your blog/site/whatever is less valuable.

Comments drive traffic, and traffic drives income, if you are making money from your site. it's that simple.
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This.

Part of the allure of reading through a bunch of articles is knowing you can comment on them, case in point this board's news section. I mean you see in a newspaper headlines about how Comcast is applying for a waiver to net neutrality, you'll grumble and probably look at the next article, you read that headline here and a fire is lit in your belly that must be let free upon the world and everyone who disagrees with you is a retard! That's the kind of play that comments brings.

Then there's what you said about coming back to check if there have been replies or other people who share your same fiery vitriol and can be a brother in arms. Doubly so when your SOLE way of making income off your site is via ad revenue due to number of users/clicks/views. The fuck is someone going to pay money just to comment and you're going to throw ads at them?
 
Zarathustra[H];1041111511 said:
Yet here you are, commenting on this article :p
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Yeah, the difference is this is a forum, not a comment section directly under an article.
 
If only there was a way for peers to review and...perhaps vote like or dislike for various comments and the relative rating of comments as reviewed by peers would drive comments up or down for relative visibility or invisibility.
 
SilverSliver said:
If only there was a way for peers to review and...perhaps vote like or dislike for various comments and the relative rating of comments as reviewed by peers would drive comments up or down for relative visibility or invisibility.
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It'd be abused. Some things are dowvoted because it's a different opinion of the majority. There are times when I don't agree with things, but they do have a valid opinion. Fucked up opinion, but it's their opinion. I won't downvote those. They have a right to express their opinion the same as anyone else. But, majority rules, so those opinions would be buried.

Trolls and just BS stuff could get downvoted easily. No problem with that.
 
Go ahead try it, IMO if comments cost money you wont have any. But who knows maybe some people are dying to comment so much that they will pay and at that point you will have a new source or revenue.
 
GotNoRice said:
Reminds me of the CNN methodology, where basically if it is an article that talks about something conservative, the comments are open and everyone is having a field day. If the article is talking about something liberal, especially stuff pandering to the black community and all of their racist opinion pieces, comments will magically be disabled. Hmmm, wonder why?
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It couldn't be the cess pool of racist comments that get added to anything of that nature, oh no.

Most news sites are pits of maggots, unfortunately. There is only one good news site, the Economist blogs, where you have fantastic dialogue back and forth between people of varying political stripes, and you see actual learning and people changing their minds. That being said, it's a fairly small community of posters...I think once it gets too big, it all falls apart.
 
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