Interesting stuff I saw online, May. 30 to May. 31
Here’s some of the stuff I thought was interesting while stomping through the Internet from May. 30 through May. 31:
- Four observations about charging for news that are often overlooked – “Plenty has been written about the futility of erecting pay walls — much of which I agree with — but a few points are often overlooked.”
- 100 Amazing Free WordPress Themes for 2009 – “High quality free WordPress Themes have become harder and harder to find in the past year, with the influx of premium themes, more and more designers and developers are selling themes (and rightly so, they do amazing work). But, that aside, the quality is certainly there, and we are sure you will be impressed with this WordPress theme compilation for 2009.”
- Getting the mean out of comments – A group of citizens meeting on the evening of May 20 in Knoxville over sandwiches and sweet tea might be end up influencing how news sites across the country view and manage comments.
- Cyberbullying: What the research is telling us… – “Delivered to the Year of the Child summit, this talk surveys the current research on cyberbullying and online harassment, pulling in Pew Internet data as well as the work of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, Internet Solutions for Kids and other academics and scholars researching this topic.”
Taking a 2nd look at coarse reader comments
Since my newspaper’s web site launched reader comments in early August, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how many cogent, articulate remarks show up on the stories. I have also been surprised at the vitriol and coarseness that seems to fly from people’s fingers.
Perhaps I was naive. But an incident yesterday has changed my way of thinking about how to deal with story comments.
On our site, most of the coarseness shows up on stories about crime or cop-and-court-type stories (and, this season, about the St. Louis Rams). Yesterday, we had a story about a 14-year-old boy who took his mother’s Ford Focus joyriding with five other teens in the wee hours of the morning. A chase, a wreck, two young boys died. Read more
Kurt's Tweets- Bravo. RT @pwthornton: "Banning unsigned online comments undermines the media’s role as a forum for debate.” http://bit.ly/bmZsOn
- I would like to just take the two steps forward and skip the one step back. How about that? Would that be OK?
- Still seeking talented journalists to run #Patch sites in two south St. Louis County communities. Know anyone? http://ow.ly/2Axnv
- Waiting for a listings collector to give her more #Patch marketing cards. The work never stops.
- Realizing how woefully out of touch I have been with this part of the county. (@ Saint Louis Bread Company) http://4sq.com/5z5Bfh