Advance drops reader comments on stories

NJ.com at least, haven't looked at others. That officially leaves no reason to visit the site, ever. And I began my career at the Star-Ledger.

 

Oregonian and AL.com as well. I don't know if it is how stories are written, or just becoming used to checking the comments, but just reading a story and not being able to gauge the reaction to the news - or thoughts on an opinion piece - just feels like something is missing. Sure, there are trolls and if the comments are garbage and predictable you can move along.

 

A lot of papers made this move a long time ago. If you knew how much time newsrooms were having to put into monitoring the comments on their sites and the fake accounts trolls would register, you'd understand why. We did it here, and it hasn't hurt traffic in the slightest. The people who still want to comment just migrated over to Facebook and post there, which has actually been much easier to deal with.

 

Advance had Forums, then closed those down to move web traffic/comments to stories themselves. Since NJ.com is larded with crap such as "The 10 Best Places to Get a Flat Fixed", and worse, I won't be missing much.

 

Thing is, when comments first became a "thing," every lowly sports writer I know expressed disdain and disgust and said these things can be mean, cruel and yes, libelous. And the suits got upset and said it was one of the keys to the future of journalism and comments were here to stay. They said, "Maybe you should engage these people. Maybe they are right about you with their concerns." Gee thanks for the support, suits. Now, years later, comments have died years before the official death of newspapers. Yet those suits remain unapologetic and rich and just move on to nodding in agreement with upper management about all their bad ideas. Here's an idea: Hire some efficient salespeople, not the dregs of the sales world (my apologies to those sales people who actually are hard working and effective; Fredrick realizes there are some of you out there).

 

I'm curious. Given that web reader comments were and are an absolute cesspool, why does that leave no reason to visit the site?

 

Because NJ.com is that weak. Unless you have a kid in HS sports.