The first written objection to comments (and my reply)
Back from a hiatus, I thought I’d share this e-mail exchange with a reader on Friday, who voiced his objection to the story comments we added to STLtoday.com on Aug. 6. Believe it or not, it’s the first written objection I’ve received since we started the feature.
This is my request for the “comments by readers” tool to be removed. I ask this for a couple reasons:
1) The website was satisfactory without them. Reader comments do not add any substantive info to your articles.
2) Many comments I have read are racist, plain and simple. Readers can make these comments anonymously and this format does not encourage healthy discussion between anyone with conflicting views.
I look forward to your reply on this matter.
This is my reply, the same afternoon:
Thank you for your comments.
I will have to respectfully disagree with point one of your note. I believe that the comments can add something very interesting to our web site. I believe the volume of comments bears me out as readers seem to have taken to them very quickly.
Further, it is becoming quite common for news organizations like ours to provide more avenues for reader interaction. There is hardly a news site in America today that does NOT allow comments on stories. Locally, KSDK makes it available on its site. Nationally, sites including The New York Times, USA Today, the Miami Herald, the Washington Post, CNN and many others also provide that outlet.
To your second point, I agree that some comments are, from time to time, coarse and uncivil. We try to watch for those and deal with them when we can. And we also explicitly ask our readers to help us watch for them. I would ask you to do the same. When readers point out comments that violate our commenting guidelines, we take the appropriate action.
Again, thank you for your comment.
Since we launched story comments, we’ve received 4,800 comments, or about 1,400 a week. I wish I’d had that information when I replied. I’d welcome other points of view on how to reply.