Chris Tolles, CEO of Topix, left a thoughtful comment on my recent post about the Asheville Citizen-Times shutting down comments on its “Home of the Week” feature on Saturdays. (I don’t verify comments left by people, but the comment is signed by his name and e-mail.)
Chris, I appreciate your response. I get little to no response from my former colleagues at the newspaper. I still have to take issue: so you’re saying it’s OK to leave a comment that’s racist, mean or dismissive when talking about a group, but it’s not OK when it’s directed at one person? Also, the Citizen-Times didn’t just shut down one comment thread on one story — it has disallowed commenting on every Home of the Week story since the one I noted. That’s not being very open.
While I agree that open communication is key to the future of the media, I think it has to be a respectful dialogue, a thoughtful dialogue, not one filled with hate-mongering and insults. Sadly, that’s where many, if not most, of the Topix threads on Citizen-Times stories end up.
Here’s Chris Tolles’ comment:
Well, Gannet owns a stake in us, but specifically does not have editorial control over our site (we actually have that written into our contract).
I think you’re overstating the case of the Citizen Times taking action on “rich white people’s” part — I think what you’re seeing here is that attacks on individuals identified by names get more editorial touch than slamming a group of people.
For the record, there are about 8% of comments that are auto-killed by the moderation systems, and probably about 3% more killed by human moderation.
And, for someone championing being the center of dialog, leaving up what the people have to say would seem to be a requirement for that.
What people say anonymously is pretty much what they really think, and the power to censor the opinions of the masses is a ship that’s sailed. The future of media involves maximizing participation, not trying to put blinders on around what people say and think….
Chris Tolles
CEO, Topix
3 Comments
If we did not have bad comments, all of them would be good… and that would be no fun at all… lol
The issue for me is allowing hateful comments in some cases and not allowing ANY comments in others. Either allow them or don’t. Otherwise, it’s just hypocritical.
I skip the comments on most stories…but even the most innocuous articles somehow bring out the nastiest people to make comments about Lord knows what or whom.
The Topix forums are the absolute gutter of online newspaper communities. If that’s the true face of humanity (and I don’t believe it is), then we are screwed. Jesus, take the wheel!
So so true… we try to limit, moderate, control, & include some of our partiality… and we get so left behind