Engadget did something very interesting today. They turned off comments on their blog. This reverses a trend that’s been happening for the last few years.
What started in the blogsphere and forums has been rolled out to almost every major news outlet in North America. All the Canadian national newspapers and TV stations allow “comments” on their stories from users. Most of the sites have been redesigned to get these comments a lot of screen real estate.
I find the comments utterly useless. The anonymity afforded by these systems bring out the worst in people. Most of the major outlets have to strictly moderate the comments, and it’s extremely rare that any comment at all is worth reading.
While I’m glad Engadget turned off commenting, they’re still committed to it and are going to turn it back on after the cooling off period. I’m hoping that the comments sections of the major outlets get less prominance and they’re reliance of them to increase traffic to decrease.
Entries (RSS)