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Message boards/comments on stories

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by SF_Express, Mar 15, 2007.

  1. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    [​IMG]


    Poor Ernest. He never had a chance.
     
  2. Mighty_Wingman

    Mighty_Wingman Active Member

    Maybe he would have had a chance if he hadn't wasted so much time doing other stuff...Going to camp, saving Christmas, going to jail, going to Africa, and so forth.

    That's enough to make anyone's focus slip.
     
  3. PHINJ

    PHINJ Active Member

    Marketing people will tell you you're wrong.
     
  4. Those Yahoo boards were awful. Horribly vile and racist. Every story, too, no matter what the subject. There'd always be something up there about blacks and Jews. I like to read the letters to the editor in the newspaper, so I enjoy the kook from Dubuque kind of stuff sometimes. But those boards were really nasty.
     
  5. alleyallen

    alleyallen Guest

    I don't want to address your post, but I've got to know.

    Which one are you? A Gamecock or a Tarheel?
     
  6. shotglass

    shotglass Guest

    We have a Fan Line, which I equate to a message board. We print 15-20 calls each day on Page 2.

    Once every three months or so, I jump on and transcribe calls because we're understaffed. Each time, I get very depressed to hear just how angry, bigoted and immovable people are.
     
  7. sartysnopes

    sartysnopes Member

    This has a very practical problem. I have seen these comment sections directly influence sources, particularly coaches, who are very reluctant to criticize their teams because someone will instantly label it as an "excuse" on the Web site for everyone else to read.

    I have no problem with people criticizing me. I do have a problem with a newspaper sponsoring anything that causes sources to think twice before speaking up.

    As few as four years ago, some Division I universities would not provide credentials to beat writers from Web sites with the reasoning that they didn't grant credentials to sites with message boards. Now almost every newspaper does has message boards or (even worse) allows comments on the same page as the story.
     
  8. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    I started this thread for a healthy debate, and it has begun, but as I kind of said in the initial post, I have to emphasize: Interactivity is going to be an important part of what we do, and we're going to have to live with some of the drawbacks, I think.
     
  9. Adding comments to a story is just like adding flair to your work outfit.

    Hitler made people wear flair.
     
  10. A Gamecock in the Tar Heel state.
     
  11. busuncle

    busuncle Member

    You're right, and I'm surprised Yahoo kept them around as long as it did.
     
  12. Smasher_Sloan

    Smasher_Sloan Active Member

    We verify letters to the editor and insist that people disclose any special connection they might have to the opinion they're stating.

    Then we put up message boards where "HawksFan1" can say he hopes the asshole coach dies in a fiery car crash on the way home because he keeps playing that fag quarterback.

    We're worse than talk radio. At least they censor that stuff before it gets on the air.
     
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