Gawker Media mastermind Nick Denton said Sunday at South by Southwest Interactive that he plans to institute a new commenting system on his family of sites within the next six weeks; one that still allows anonymous comments, but which makes commenters into moderators. On certain stories, the new system will only allow certain users to comment at all.
For every 2 blog comments that are interesting, 8 will be off-topic or toxic, says @NickNotned here > bit.ly/y3hDzx – Agree?
— Matthew Cerrone (@matthewcerrone) March 12, 2012
“Anonymity is at the heart of the Internet..and the discovery of truth on the Internet” –@nicknotned
— Chris Tolles (@tolles) March 11, 2012
“The idea of capturing the intelligence of the readership — that’s a joke.” Nick Denton. cnn.com/2012/03/11/tec…
— lorcan dempsey (@lorcanD) March 12, 2012
While he didn’t delve too deeply into the details, Denton did say the first commenter will have responsibility for maintaining the quality of the conversation.
He rejected editors and writers engaging in comment conversations and moderating as requiring too much time. He rejected real names saying anonymity is “heart of the Internet.” He rejected gamification like up-voting and down-voting, saying the decisions were not meant to be democratic.And, he said, third-party management, such as using Facebook, is inadequate.
That leaves coming up with something else. It’s not like news organizations and others aren’t trying. Here’s the most recent of my comment links:
- Have online comment sections become ‘a joke’? – CNN.com
- Daily Dot | Gawker Media’s Nick Denton comments on ‘the tragedy of the comments’
- Gawker Will Deputize Commenters, Says Sheriff Nick Denton – Liz Gannes – Media – AllThingsD
- Gawker Founder Nick Denton Plans To Revamp Site’s Comment Strategy | Adweek
- Scripting News: What is Relative Writing?
- Scripting News: No comment
- The Washington Post tries a new weapon to fight the trolls: humans » Nieman Journalism Lab
- Washington Post cracks down on bad comments | Poynter.
- Who Will Win the Race to Build the Web’s Best Real-Name Identity Service?
- Gerber: Our online comments policy is changing | timesfreepress.com
- Gannett Blog: GCI switching all sites to Facebook commenting
- The case of anonymity in social media | TechRepublic
- Obit for a Flaming Troll – Noise – Jackson Free Press: Jackson, Mississippi
- The New York Times Loves Some Readers More Than Others – Brainstorm – The Chronicle of Higher Education
- Gannett requiring Facebook for posting
- Comments on Your Website: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly | The City Wire
- Asheville publisher: Bringing civility to online discourse | The Asheville Citizen-Times | citizen-times.com
- The Times to Change Policy for Comments on Web Site – NYTimes.com
- Trusted Commenters – The New York Times
- New York Times overhauls comment system, grants privileges to trusted readers | Poynter.
- More media outlets ban anonymous Web comments | The Tennessean | tennessean.com
- Anonymous Commenters: Cowards Or Contributors? | Techdirt
- Study: Commenters on CNN.com may call you an idiot; on msnbc.com they tell you why you’re an idiot | Poynter.
- Small-Town Gossip Moves to the Web, Anonymous and Vicious – NYTimes.com
- If managing story comments are a pain, read this – JackLail.com
- Anonymous comments end at U-T, SignOn | SignOnSanDiego.com
- Internet anonymity suffering scrutiny courtesy of the London riots
- Google, Facebook Now Dissuade Aliases on Profiles – International Business Times
- Can gamification help solve the online anonymity problem? — Tech News and Analysis
- Naming Names on the Internet – NYTimes.com
- What’s in a Pseudo-name? Privacy, Free Expression
- A Google+ discussion about news comments – JackLail.com
- What’s Really Behind the Real-Name Debate? – Liz Gannes – Social – AllThingsD
- Google is right to demand people use real names
- On Pseudonymity, Privacy and Responsibility on Google+ – TechnoSocial
- danah boyd | apophenia
- Caterina.net» Blog Archive » Anonymity and Pseudonyms in Social Software
- Jillian C. York » A Case for Pseudonyms
- Nobody Uses Their Real Name Online, and Other Outdated Notions
- What Google still doesn’t get about running an online community — Tech News and Analysis
- Handing comments over to Facebook is a double-edged sword — Tech News and Analysis
- ‘Real Names’ Doesn’t Exactly Guarantee A High Level Of Conversation Either | Techdirt
- Memo to newspapers: The future of media is a two-way street — Tech News and Analysis
- The Future of Digital Journalism is Transactions – Forbes
- Online commenting: the age of rage | Technology | The Observer
- If Your Comment Section Is Awesome, It’s Your Community’s Fault | Techdirt
- If your website’s full of anonymity, that might be okay – Anil Dash
- South Korea’s
- Anonymous D
- Redding.com tries gamification to improve comments – JackLail.com