NOREEN: Good riddance to online graffiti
With the flick of a switch this week, The Gazette stopped running most anonymous comments from readers and if the move doesn’t immediately raise the level of online discourse, at least we’ve removed the worst of the vicious back-biting.
A few commenters maintained their anonymity by creating Facebook pages with fake names. Where there is a foaming-at-the-mouth will, there is a way.
But on Friday, the Gazette’s first full day with the new system, the numbers of readers clicking into Gazette online material was average when compared with other recent Fridays. The number of comments on the stories or columns was way down.
This is encouraging because it means getting rid of the most provocative-yet-dubious content did not hurt us in the marketplace. It will take more time to understand the impact.
Many of us in the newsroom think the number of comments on stories will slowly increase again. We think commenters like to comment, and most of them will come back to a somewhat more civil conversation.
But admittedly, we can’t be sure what will happen because we haven’t done this before.
Not everyone in the newsroom likes eliminating anonymous comments. Sports columnist Dave Ramsey wrote, “I enjoyed hearing from people who had not yet taken their medication. Insanity is always fun.”
A certain columnist disliked the mean-spirited comments from the beginning. He was naive enough to think that if he could get a group of regular anonymous commenters together in person, the face-to-face human dynamic would enhance the quality of the discussion.
Twice, commenters came to a large room at the Gazette, retaining their anonymity from each other while having very civil conversations. Alas, when they returned to their keyboards they reverted to form.
Many of those who like to post anonymous comments are like motorists who morph into a completely different person when they get behind the wheel. Careless, insulting and vicious remarks pour out like road rage.
Adding names to the comments didn’t mean they were all benign. On Friday, some of the comments accompanied by the author’s name contained lucid doses of sarcasm. That’s cool.
Former Gazette writer Tim Bergsten correctly observed that “the whole move has less to do with hate-filled comments and more to do with moving the forum to a platform (Facebook) that will provide way more exposure for the Gazette and its web site.”
But forgive some of us old-timers for celebrating the end of online American graffiti because we think it was just the right thing to do.
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Listen to Barry Noreen on KRDO NewsRadio 105.5 FM and 1240 AM at 6:35 a.m. on Fridays and read his blog updates at gazette.com
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