Comments About Comments

theodp writes "This weekend's NY Times is all-about-the-comments. First, Michael Erard recounts the history of Web site comments and explains how their technical origins have shaped the actual commentary we've come to expect as usual today. On dealing with people-behaving-badly, Erard writes, 'Only a few [high-traffic sites] seem to have tried user-moderation systems like the one developed by Slashdot's creator, Rob Malda. Founded in 1997, Slashdot rapidly began to suffer from what Malda called 'signal-to-noise-ratio problems' as tens of thousands of users showed up. Rather than embracing the chaos (which was a hallmark of Usenet, another digital channel of communications) or locking things down with moderators (which e-mail lists did), Malda figured out a way for users to moderate one another. Moderation became like jury duty, something you were called to do.' Next, NY Times community manager Bassey Etim, who oversees 13 comment moderators, offers up his comments on comments, agreeing that 'the comments are where the real America is.' Finally, there's Gawker's next-generation Kinja, which aims to further blur the lines between stories, blog entries, and comments."

Comments

The most valuable part of some sites

[iampiti]

It's obvious that comments are what make some websites attractive. This is one of them.
In Slashdot I usually find very interesting what other people think about the news. Sometimes, there're some jewels: Comments about people who really know what the news is about and offer their perspective. I same those comments as bookmarks. I wonder why there's not a "favorite" option to save them.

Re:The most valuable part of some sites

[Thanshin]

I same those comments as bookmarks. I wonder why there's not a "favorite" option to save them.

Everyone should have a single "Supermod" point once per month that would work as a normal mod point except it would allow going past +5.

So after the holidays we could quickly read the articles with only the very few +6+ posts.

Re:The most valuable part of some sites

[SJHillman]

"It's obvious that comments are what make some websites attractive. This is one of them."

It's sure as hell not the unique, timely stories with well-edited summaries that keeps people coming back to Slashdot.

Re:First post!

[Anonymous Coward]

Made even more appropriate by not actually being the first post.

I never understood the desire to 'first post'. It's like saying "I've not a single useful thought in my head, and look how fast I can let everybody know it!"

'the comments are where the real America is.'

[Anonymous Coward]

Horribly depressing.

Re:I've got 14 mod points

[marcello_dl]

except you can't use them in this thread...

Re:The more moderated, the less honest

[dugancent]

More moderated = more groupthink.

That is not a good thing.

Re:The more moderated, the less honest

[SJHillman]

However, without moderation, the noise often overtakes the signal and you're left without any discussion, debate, or sharing of useful information whatsoever. Also not a good thing.

Re:I've got 14 mod points

[knarfling]

I tried having multiple accounts, but the arguments between accounts quickly got out of hand.

At first, it was just the other account made way too many stupid arguments, but it soon escalated to threats of physical violence. I had to keep a close watch on myself to keep me from slashing my own tires. (I tried hiding, but I quickly learned that I knew where I lived and where I liked to hide.)

After two or three "unfortunate incidents" I decided to close all but one of the accounts. Things settled down for a while, but I still have to keep a close eye on me in case I go back and login to one of the "closed" accounts.

---
Only two of my personalities have delusions, but one of them is paranoid and the other is out to get him.

Re:I've got 14 mod points

[mcgrew]

Ah, but there's the evil metamoderation. I've had my own comments come up when metamoderating!

Muahahahaha!!!

Since moderation is on-topic ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Since moderation is on-topic ...

The biggest weakness with Slashdot's current system is the way that early posts get a disproportionate amount of attention, and mod-points. When a new story shows up, so long as I post within 5-10 minutes it's pretty easy to get modded to +5, even as an AC.

Try it yourself - as soon as a new story hits, quickly summarize your gut reaction to the summary, hit post, and watch the mod-points accumulate. The downside, of course, is that anybody who shows up late will struggle to get heard amongst the noise.

Oh yes, and I really dislike it when 50% of an entire comments section consists of replies to one post. This seems to happen because people want their post to get noticed.

Can anybody think of a good solution to these problems? Or are there other moderation problems which need dealing with?

Re:I've got 14 mod points

[MiniMike]

I've thought about setting up a second, sock-puppet account with which to argue with myself, but haven't yet, either due to laziness or a general lack of self-interest...

Or are you afraid that the sock-puppet account will get moderated more favorably than your original account?

Re:C(C(S(C(C()))))

[Anonymous Coward]

/*This is a comment in a comment.*/

Moderate older comments

[handy_vandal]

I like to moderate week-old comments, when I get mod points.

Imagine the poster's surprise: "Hey! I got modded up for a comment I wrote last week!"

Gives me a warm feeling: two parts happiness, one part mischief.