News24, fairwell to comments.

[AndyD]

I see News24 has taken a policy decision to have comments on news articles switched off by default.

They cite reasons such as;

......we wish to be known for the quality of our content rather than for our comments.......

Many commentators insist on pushing the boundaries of free speech available to us in South Africa.

Comments tediously drift towards hate speech at worst and, at best, are often laced with prejudice.

Interesting and considered contributions are drowned out by a cacophony of insults from a minority of users.

This is not the experience we wish users to have in our home.

The full article is here; http://www.news24.com/Columnists/And...hange-20150908

Having seen the comments over the years I can certainly see why they've taken this decision but I also think they've taken the easy way out to some degree at least.

[Mike C]

I agree wholeheartedly. Certainly they had their share of haters and trolls ... but the comments were often more interesting and enlightening to read than the articles themselves.

[adrianh]

I loved the comments. It is amazing how witty people can be. My favourite haunt for great/silly/clever/funny/good/bad/you name it is Reddit!

[Dave A]

Probably no coincidence that the story is raised here by a member of the TFSA Admin Team. Every now and then we feel a little tested too

My kneejerk reaction was "they're copping out," but I wanted to chew over it a bit before saying so here. And after some reflection -

At the end of the day they're primarily a news site - the comments facility is definitely secondary. That said, I certainly think dropping the comments is going to be a loss as it often added depth to the story. However, that level of interactivity does require an investment in leadership and moderation, which can be quite challenging. But it's not a challenge they're obliged to face.

Their site. Their choice.

Perhaps what they should consider instead is introducing "Letters to the Editor". In this online age where we're used to full blown interactivity, it might seem regressive. But it works just fine in the paper world. Fair chance it'll work in their situation too.

[Justloadit]

They decided to rather disable by default comments, as their was an average of 5,000 posts a day. Quite a number to read and moderate.
There then would be comments against the moderator for making a a decision on a comment mmmmm a difficult one I think to manage.

[IanF]

I read the comments a few times and they degenerated very quickly into racial slogans with no clear purpose other than to troll.
I won't miss the comments.

[Blurock]

I agree. It is too easy to slander others while hiding behind a nom de plume. The cowards will never use their own names. Unfortunately there are a few on the Forum as well. It's easy to identify the sarcastic name callers.

[Dave A]

Unfortunately there are a few on the Forum as well.

There have been some ugly exchanges that have played the man rather than the ball, and it's clear there remains some tension between a very small (albeit at times vocal) minority of members.

However, I must give credit where it's due - it is clear to me that those same members do respect the underlying ethos of TFSA, and do try to restrain their more ferocious side. Despite this, every now and then things boil over, but incidents of late have been more along the lines of skirmishes than war. (Long may that continue).

Of course, every now and then we have a newbie that goes over the top early on as has been allowed unchecked on news24, but it doesn't take long at all for them to realise that level of b.s. isn't tolerated around this part of the internet. Best of all, more often than not the moderators don't even have to step in - the maturity level of the active membership here tends to "steer them in the right direction" pretty quickly.

[wynn]

I see a great business opportunity, set up a N24 comments site or blog and sell advertising space on the side?

[Rory]

99% of comments were just hate speech anyway, hardly worth reading...

[tec0]

Had to delete a lot o stuff... LOL

Ask yourself these questions;

> Why isn't the FULL news reported?
> Why are some interviews aggressive and one-sided? [How meany times have we seen the news group attempted to make the news?]
> Why do some parliament members enjoy a greater freedom of expression then others?

Upon asking these questions you start to see why the "comments" section got removed. It is no secret that that you "like me" get more news via SMS and e-mail then from the news groups. It is not a secret that "some news groups" are very selective on the news they report. And if you start to consider the options available why couldn't a moderator be appointed to make sure that Trolls and haters be removed?

Then you realize this isn't about the trolls or the haters or the fact that they didn't implement a moderator system. What did they do? Did they remove public opinion?

That is a interesting question isn't it?

A more troubling question would then be;
Why was it needed to remove public option?
Could it be that the public started to point out that the news groups where selective?

Wow so many questions that can be asked... Not many answers...

In the end the news network will become a thing of the past. Why because firstly some now demand you do subscriptions and if you consider that a newspaper is cheap inexpensive and doesn't require data or power it is surly better then having some application on your tablet eating away at your data and wallet. Yes it might be "easy" to read news on your tablet or phone... But it is not worth it at all... Long live newspapers

[tec0]

I see a great business opportunity, set up a N24 comments site or blog and sell advertising space on the side?

Yea that would be great "Public opinion sponsored by so and so"

[gac]

You read my mind Wynn with 1 exception. Why not a site that picks up articles from various news sources and allows comments. I am sure there are ways and means of blocking undesirable commentary and certain swear words. Wish i was more tech savvy and I might be temted to do exactly as you suggest.

[Sally]

At the end of the day Trolls post simply to elicit a reaction - this is their be all and end all so all they've done is shot themselves in the foot and deprived the intelligent gene pool of a platform to discuss current issues in the process. Many times I had to restrain myself from rising to the occasion but best way to put out a fire is to starve it. gac - there are ways and means. A friend of mine's name is Gay and on one particular interactive gaming site her name appears beneath her profile pic as *** - very amusing.

[AndyD]

Word filters certainly aren't a silver bullet, on many UK forums you see people who list their location as 'Scunthorpe' and it gets changed to S****horpe by the swearword filter.