Front Page Comments - Qualitative vs Quantitative

[palandri]

I saw this post today regarding spam on the front page: http://forums.windowscentral.com/wpcentral-com-site-news-feedback-help/244396-reporting-comments-stories.html

Which got me thinking about the last couple of times we talked about the front page here: http://forums.windowscentral.com/staff-discussion-forum/219609-front-page-blog-spam.html and here: http://forums.windowscentral.com/staff-discussion-forum/220435-rules-have-changed.html

Now this is just my personal opinion. I really think there is a lack of professionalism on the front page. The comment section is still full of kids saying FU back and forth and other garbage comments. It's a real turn off for me and I think it reflects badly on WPC. I know James said there was a word filter added, but it doesn't seem to be working very well. Put the "F" word into the front page search and you'll see what I mean:

...What the flying **** were they 'collaborating' on all that time? Porn? I used to respect google a lot, but they can **** themselves...

...******* assholes! You know its obvious that Google 's goal has always been to destroy MS...

...and **** you apache for having a problem with it....

I just wanted reiterate my personal opinion on the front page.

 

[stmav]

I concur. I just shake my head reading the comments at times. At least a couple of the real pains have stayed there and haven't ventured into the forums. They probably wouldn't get farther than 3 posts before they were banned. Though I've noticed some that are banned from the forum that still post there, doing the same thing that got them banned from the forum.

I've even seen some ambassadors with less than stellar behavior in the comments on the front page. Fortunately the banner doesn't show there and it doesn't get noticed. Kind of makes you keep an eye out here to make sure they aren't bringing it here.

 

[Muessig]

I wondered about this, but apparently it's all up to the article writer to keep their blogs clean. Seems they're really not bothered, which reflects badly on the whole site as palandri is saying. It's a shame.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I wondered about this, but apparently it's all up to the article writer to keep their blogs clean. Seems they're really not bothered, which reflects badly on the whole site as palandri is saying. It's a shame.

It might depend on the general tone that the writers and/or staff wish for the blog page. Some sites' comments tend to be really "professional" in tone, almost to the point of appearing stodgy (say, Wall Street Journal, for instance). Other sites' comments tend to be really "edgy" in tone, conveying an "anything goes" attitude. I'm not sure which tone gets more page hits or attracts/keeps an audience better (although I'd say it depends on who that audience is), but I believe there is a good reason for the differences in the blogs and the forums.

 

[stmav]

It might depend on the general tone that the writers and/or staff wish for the blog page. Some sites' comments tend to be really "professional" in tone, almost to the point of appearing stodgy (say, Wall Street Journal, for instance). Other sites' comments tend to be really "edgy" in tone, conveying an "anything goes" attitude. I'm not sure which tone gets more page hits or attracts/keeps an audience better (although I'd say it depends on who that audience is), but I believe there is a good reason for the differences in the blogs and the forums.

There's definitely a reason. Whether it's good or not depends on your point of view.

 

[palandri]

http://forums.windowscentral.com/ambassador-general-discussion/245096-language-front-page-articles.html

 

[Dave Blake]

Look guys I think its all just a freedom of expression thing. I think its the EIC's that are insisting that these comments sections be free from moderation. Lets face it who are these people hurting? When I read some of the stupid comments I just think, WOW that guy is an *****. Its easy to see who's comments are worth reading and who's need to be ignored.

Here is what I am doing to do. I am going to pass some forum links on to Daniel via email and see if he will comment on this issue because I simply don't know for sure why we don't do something to clean up the blog.

 

[Daniel Rubino]

This is ******* stupid.

lol, kidding, going for some humor here

So we'll see about getting the swear filter put back on, not sure why it was removed but it probably has to do with the Drupal upgrades. We do police the comments and do often ban or delete inappropriate things. Swearing in and of itself is annoying, but it's not something we aggressively delete or ban comments for. Blogs are a lot more dynamic in terms of news and therefore reflect a more "at the moment" reaction from users--so yeah, you will see a lot more negativity there.

To be honest, I find off-topic comment and the "First!" brigade more annoying than swearing itself.

The other issue is volume. On busy days, we've written up to 30 articles on the front page. To police those comments just for that day (let alone things that get posted 24 hours or more later), is bit difficult. Unless something is flagged, its unreasonable to expect the editors to constantly refreshing the front page to see if something is "offensive"...and let's be honest, a lot of times these are subjective calls. Once comments hit past 200, it becomes a job to police those to look for the jerks and frankly we'd rather be writing.

So in short, we'll see about the swear filter and we'll try to be vigilant, but blog comment will always be different from the forums--faster, quicker, more dynamic and more volume. Because of that, the quality of some posters will always be less than ideal, but it's not a top concern of mine. Blog comments on every site can be a sewer at times, that's just the nature of the internet and TBH, we rarely if ever receive complaints.

 

[Laura Knotek]

This is ******* stupid.

lol, kidding, going for some humor here

So we'll see about getting the swear filter put back on, not sure why it was removed but it probably has to do with the Drupal upgrades. We do police the comments and do often ban or delete inappropriate things. Swearing in and of itself is annoying, but it's not something we aggressively delete or ban comments for. Blogs are a lot more dynamic in terms of news and therefore reflect a more "at the moment" reaction from users--so yeah, you will see a lot more negativity there.

To be honest, I find off-topic comment and the "First!" brigade more annoying than swearing itself.

The other issue is volume. On busy days, we've written up to 30 articles on the front page. To police those comments just for that day (let alone things that get posted 24 hours or more later), is bit difficult. Unless something is flagged, its unreasonable to expect the editors to constantly refreshing the front page to see if something is "offensive"...and let's be honest, a lot of times these are subjective calls. Once comments hit past 200, it becomes a job to police those to look for the jerks and frankly we'd rather be writing.

So in short, we'll see about the swear filter and we'll try to be vigilant, but blog comment will always be different from the forums--faster, quicker, more dynamic and more volume. Because of that, the quality of some posters will always be less than ideal, but it's not a top concern of mine. Blog comments on every site can be a sewer at times, that's just the nature of the internet and TBH, we rarely if ever receive complaints.

I agree. I think the dumb 'first' comments are more annoying than the swearing. Maybe I'm missing something, but I haven't seen the 'first' comments anywhere except on Mobile Nations sites. Then again I typically don't bother reading or posting comments on most sites. I'll send a tweet to an author to comment about things on other sites.

 

[eric12341]

I sometimes feel like deleting any "first" comments I see.

 

[rockstarzzz]

I must admit here whenever I am active on the front page, I do banter A LOT! They've generally increased dialogue between users but at times also attracted rubbish "off topics" e.g. AT&T GDR2 saga. I know front page team was annoyed on one particular day with everyone doing it and everything was effectively deleted! Since I saw comments as a way to increase dialogue = increased visitors or re-visitors to that page = more clicks = higher up in Google search results = happy Mobile nations - I do indulge in plenty of banter. Heck, some folks who don't come to the forums even think I'm trolling!

However, a genuine question here - does more comments = more hits?

 

[Laura Knotek]

I must admit here whenever I am active on the front page, I do banter A LOT! They've generally increased dialogue between users but at times also attracted rubbish "off topics" e.g. AT&T GDR2 saga. I know front page team was annoyed on one particular day with everyone doing it and everything was effectively deleted! Since I saw comments as a way to increase dialogue = increased visitors or re-visitors to that page = more clicks = higher up in Google search results = happy Mobile nations - I do indulge in plenty of banter. Heck, some folks who don't come to the forums even think I'm trolling!

However, a genuine question here - does more comments = more hits?

I think more comments = more hits on sites that promote their comments.

For example the local newspaper here lists the top commented articles. Scroll down the page and you'll see it in the right hand column. Cleveland OH Local News, Breaking News, Sports & Weather - cleveland.com

 

[eric12341]

I rarely comment on the front page.

 

[rockstarzzz]

I think more comments = more hits on sites that promote their comments.

For example the local newspaper here lists the top commented articles. Scroll down the page and you'll see it in the right hand column. Cleveland OH Local News, Breaking News, Sports & Weather - cleveland.com

I rarely comment on the front page.

In that case I may tune down a bit on my banter, never know when Daniel gets a bad coffee at work and I get the wrath!