Please feel free to comment

By Austin Bates

I was interested recently by a blog post at Lost Remote dealing with comment sections on website articles, especially concerning television and newspaper related websites. For the most part, I agree with the what the author, Don Day, says about comments. Ironically, though, the bulk of the conversation and discussion about comments on websites occurs in the comment section of the blog post.

I have to say that my experience with what I've seen and done in comment related sections is very similiar to what was talked about in Day's blog. Comments for an article or topic tend to vary between being intelligently written and with well made points, to being pointless, mindlessly agressive attacks on other people. The worst situation is when such debates begin well-intentioned enough, and then just devolve into flame wars.

It seems that the content of such comments sections largely depend on the demographic likely to consume the article that goes with the comments section. Obviously, if the article concerns something to do with the younger generations, you can expect it to be filled mostly with uneducated hate speech and flame attacks. With articles that are more geared to older generations, they tend to be considerably more controlled and intelligent. Typically, as well, it seems, the larger the audience to which a particular website appeals to, the more likely they are to receive a lot of negative, pointless comments.

But what about the usefulness of such sections, as Day and the commentators below his post ask? I have to say I agree with some of the commentators on this: while comment sections can become wildly off-topic and inappropriate, they ultimately serve as important public forums. Those with the paper might pick up leads and inside information into other stories or future stories through comments posted about an online article. But if nothing else, comment sections can serve as they were intended to serve: as a means of feedback for how well the story was received, and thus, as a means of improvement for the article.

In the end, I believe that online articles would be fine with or without comment sections, though such sections add a level of interactivity and contribution that readers of hard copies might not otherwise have. Ultimately, it might be better for any online article to have comment sections, whether they are used or not, in order to ensure that that option is open to readers.