Word clouds on 7 story comment guidelines
I “acquired” this idea from TechCrunch, which tossed up word clouds from the terms of service on a variety of sites following the flap over Facebook’s recent policy change and reversal.
A couple of weeks ago, I highlighted reader commenting guidelines that I thought were worth looking at from several news sites. Thanks for the idea, TechCrunch. Here’s Wordle word clouds from those sites. They actually do show a different focus. For example, I was struck by USA Today’s emphasis on “community.” And the Washington Post’s reflects a much more legalistic approach.
Eric Zorn’s guidelines from his Chicago Tribune blog. Read more
7 news story comment guidelines worth looking at
Eric Zorn
I came across a tweet by Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn in which he mentioned revising the commenting guidelines for his blog. So I wanted to find how what he changed, how, and why.
Back in October, I quit comments altogether (the guidelines were short: “Comments are not posted immediately. We review them first in an effort to remove foul language, commercial messages, irrelevancies and unfair attacks. Thank you for your patience.” (That is) still found on many other Trib Blogs).
I reinstated with the New Year an open comments policy, no pre-review, but here are my rules.
I think it’s in-part a software problem. If I were to be designing a comment area, it would have a somewhat elaborate registration/verification/authentication policy that would create a community of established commenters. I’m not all that interested in the drive-by anonymous pot-shooters and snark-masters. But I am quite interested in what a fair number of our smart, thoughful readers have to say.
His guidelines are conversational, yet frank. They’re specific, but leave room for interpretation — because there are always gray areas. There’s a link below to his revised guidelines.
The exchange got me hunting about for other examples of good guidelines. I’ve linked to a few that I’ve referred to in my own research. You might also look at the guidelines on the New York Daily News site (which come up in a letterbox link with all the story pages). I find their guidelines to be straightforward and useful, as well as conversational. Read more
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