Dear Reader, We’re Closing Comments
The Independent Online is South Africa’s “premier online news source.” The above is how it headlined a transformative open letter to readers yesterday, becoming the latest on a growing list of news sites and weblogs banning comments.
Here, in part, is how the editor explained IOL’s reason for doing so:
I thought you should be the first to know that Independent Online (IOL) will be closing comments on its online articles with immediate effect.
It is a difficult but necessary decision to make and we arrived at it after careful consideration of all the factors at play…
We are of the view that instances of abuse in our comments section have become untenable.
Welcome to the club, IOL:
I disabled the comments feature on this site years ago. Far too many visitors were using it to either publish comments that had nothing to do with my commentaries or hurl insults at other readers (you know, the ignorant and juvenile snark that seems standard fare on Twitter and Facebook).
Not to mention those who commented anonymously or under fake names because they didn’t have the balls to stand by, or the brains to defend, their comments.
(“More Websites Banning Public Comments,” The iPINIONS Journal, May 23, 2014)
I trust it’s self-evident from browsing my commentaries that I probably read more news, arts and culture, and sports sites than anyone you know. But I stopped commenting on what I read long ago, after realizing that the comments section, even of purportedly highbrow sites like the New York Times and The Economist, is invariably more mental mosh pit than debate forum.
What’s more, most reporters/writers only chimed in if they had a financial incentive to curry favor with readers; you know, like social-media hustlers begging for “Likes” and “Followers.”
Related commentaries:
banning comments…