Reader comments on the website

Ain't it great?

 

SF Express I said long ago the battle is lost. I realize the Internet isn't going away. That doesn't mean newspapers have to cheapen themselves by allowing racist/sexist/mean/nasty reader comments that are anonymous. It truly makes newspaper employees seem the dredge of society IMO. Do you agree or disagree?

As far as me being an anonymous poster. If I had to sign up here and post under my last name to go with my first name I probably wouldn't sign up. So what the board would do just fine, most would say, better without Fredrick.

 

I almost peed my pants a little.

 

You should blog about that.

 

Consider it done.

 

You spell it out in the privacy policy, you're covered. Caveat emptor

 

I'd wager a lot of people would provide throwaway addresses, then, or addresses they'll never check again after their registration is approved.

 

You're right, but think about this shotgun style of marketing and selling. Why is spam so successful? The model is cheap; send out a million emails, if you get a 1% or 2% return that is converted into a sale, that's really not that bad considering the initial investment. Now granted, many spammers are hijacking computers to send spam, and there's no cost-per-email that a legit business would have to incur, but it does work.

 

http://tinyurl.com/85wec9

 

Fredrick won't like it -- heck, maybe I don't like it, I just hope I'm a realist -- but that's the way it is and will continue to be, more and more.

 

There is a huge gap between responsibly allowing reader comments and letting anonymous people have their say. Both ends of the spectrum involve diligence on the part of the paper/media outlet, and both come with their own headaches. If you're fine having your reputation go down the tubes, thus further losing the foothold you've spent decades and decades gaining with readers, be lax and lazy about it and call it a "dialog" because someone else says that's what it is.

 

Point is, Johnny, you're not just telling the readers the news anymore. The popularity of reader comments signals that they want to interact and they want to be heard.

How are you going to interact with them? Or will you just ignore them and drive them away?