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February 23, 2008
The value of anonymous posts
We had a spirited meeting in the last week about our policy of allowing anonymous posts to articles on ConnPost.com.
Do we value anonymous posts? Would requiring people to register stop some of the venomous posts that some people continue to leave on our site? Will some of our readers become so disgusted with some of the comments being left they will stop reading the Connecticut Post altogether? Should comments be reviewed before they are posted?
These were some of the questions being debated.
Traditionally, newspapers do not value anonymous comments. If you aren't willing to attach your name to a statement, that statement doesn't have any credibility. Generally, readers don't like to see stories with information from anonymous sources, so what has changed where we would allow anonymous comments on ConnPost.com?
The web has changed everything.
Not long ago, when I wanted to trade in a camera for a new model, I would take it to my local camera shop where they would offer me practically nothing. Since it was better than nothing at all, and let's face it, I didn't have any other choice, I would be forced to accept their offer.
Fast forward to the internet age, and the birth of Ebay. Now, I can sell it on Ebay and get market prices for it. No longer do I have to own a camera shop to be able to sell my equipment.
Years ago, if I wanted to find out what was going on with my local high school football team, I had to buy the local paper, and hope they covered my school, since they were the only game in town.
Fast forward to today, if the local paper doesn't cover my team, I can probably find a local blog that covers them, (like the FCIAC blog, or Birdseye Sports here in Fairfield County), or you might even get all the information you need from the students themselves on their own blog. My point is the newspaper is no longer the only game in town.
The time when the owner of the printing press gets to decide what the community is told is over. The web allows everyone to create their own virtual printing press.
No longer do you have to send your letter to the editor to the local paper and hope the editor who received it values your opinion enough to put it in the paper. If the paper doesn't want to print your letter, you can post it on one of thousands of web sites that want to hear what you have to say or you can create your own blog and start your own discussion.
The rules have changed, thanks to the technology. Clearly, you want to express your opinion, unfiltered by us. So do we allow you to comment? Or do we tell you we don't value anonymous comments and send you elsewhere.
We do have the ability to prevent you from commenting on our stories, but should we? Are we telling our readers we don't want to hear what you have to say, we only want you to read what we decide is relevant?
Many newspapers ignored the web for many years, and are now scrambling to catch up. I sure hope we don't make more mistakes by telling readers we don't value their opinions and we end up sending them to sites that do want to hear what you have to say.
Posted by Bustraan on 12:43 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
