Internet Stewardship and the Comments Section
Eliminating the comments section, or applying the rules arbitrarily, is a dangerous enterprise.
Reader comments foster loyalty and engagement by keeping users on a site longer. But comment streams are vulnerable to abuse, and some news organizations are eliminating them completely.
The Washington Post recently wrote about news sites cracking down on over-the-top comments, which made me think of an article that Slate ran last year called “Why We Post Nothing—Nothing—About Our Kid Online. You Should Do the Same for Your Kids.” Amy Webb, the post’s author, received hundreds of comments by parents who disagreed with her thesis and advice.
Some people found it ironic that Webb would spend hours “crawling through Google,” trying to optimize her child’s digital identity in order to protect her from bullies, potential employers, institutions of higher education, the government, corporations and facial recognition technology.
Webb
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