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Hey Everyone-- as part of our continuing efforts to make Gothamist a friendly and reasonably polite place, we've eliminated "guest" comments on our posts. This means that to comment on the site, all users will need to complete a short registration process.
We've decided to do this because the vast majority of bad behavior (trolling, spamming, incivility, etc) seem to come from the guests. That's not surprising: as many internet pundits have observed, total anonymity seems to make even the nicest person act totally insane.
A note about privacy: the new system does require a working email address to complete registration. It does not require you to share your real name, or any other information about you. Gothamist will not sell your email address to third parties.
Registration on the new system is fast and easy-- you can do it here. And once you register you get a nifty profile page, showing all of your previous Gothamist activity. You can also select an "avatar" which will show up whenever you comment.
Thanks to everyone who gave feedback on the comments system. Feel free to share your opinions in the comments on this post, or in emails to me and Jen.
Previously: Comments 2.0
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
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And once again, I've brought back "Yappy" the cute commenting kitten, to encourage kindness in the comments on this post. I mean, seriously-- can you really act like a douche with Yappy staring down at you?
alright. cool. you've got comments on lock now. now could you please work on making the website more professional re: copyediting? please?
for as long as i've been reading this website (gosh.. 3 1/2 years now?) there seems to have been a stubborn refusal to actually implement any sort of proofreading guidelines, and i honestly think that if you guys took this one extra step (that isn't even that time-consuming!) you guys could really become a news source to be reckoned with.
all the other -ist blogs are well-edited... why not the flagship??
and yeah yeah, im sure this comment is filled with errors. i dont care. i'm not writing for the blog.
oh, and for the comments could we possibly get a "reply to" button ala gawker?
I'm too lazy to change my avatar. Besides, the panda's sort of cool.
Jake- That kitten is a lil creepy.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
@ Nick S-- I think the "reply to" is a great idea-- it'd work the same way it works on Gawker and Twitter, where the "@ username" links back to the last comment by that user on the page. That gives some structure to the conversation, but without the weirdness of threading (which makes the page hard to scan quickly.)
Down with the trolls! Thanks Gothamist.
Okay, so the copy editing isn't perfect, and it's not professional, but I would say it takes very little away from the value of this site. And killing guest comments goes a long way in adding value to the comments.
thank goodness! although it sucks that "misspelled word" guy is still around. Isn't there an english class you should be teaching?
Happy for this. Thanks!
Thank you so much for doing this, Gothamist. I feel that you're a very good site, but the racist and insane comments from anonymous/guest users threatened to ruin the whole thing for me. By eliminating these users, you've done a huge favor for me and for other sincere Gothamist readers.
Ps. Even though I copyedit for a living, I don't mind the typos on your blog. It's impossible to catch everything.
Honestly, the spelling is not such a huge deal. You aren't paying money to read this and it's a news blog - emphasis on blog, not a newspaper.
I believe it will not solve the problems of world hunger, disease, or war but it's a start. I think this discriminates against good guest. You are placing the bad guest in the same boat with guest who have good opinions and contributes worthy conversation and discussion to an article. Just delete guest replies that are considered trolling, spamming, and incivility. So all now a bad guest has to do is sign up, pick a name, and still leave spam and indecent comments but at least he/she will have a cool name and avatar to go along with it. I'm a guest on many boards because I just don't have the brain capacity to remember so many usernames and passwords. With thousands of sites today it hard thinking of new names and passwords for every site you visit then when you do think of one you forget it two days later. I would have left guest active just for people who want to leave quick comments without becoming life long members. All this does is give me another username and password to remember already adding to the other hundreds I have to remember for other sites. Guest are people to ... just without a username. As the saying goes, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water!". When will the discrimination in this country stop.
Not happy about guest comments going either. I liked that everyone was free to express whatever they were thinking. I think free expression is good.
But alas, I enjoy the site and I'm being forced to play by the rules...
Thank you.
It adds a degree of accountability, which is great. And besides--anyone who cares enough to contribute any meaningful comments shouldn't mind the extra 20 seconds it takes to sign up and log in, methinks.
Do you find that people accept what some might consider to be "bad news" more readily when it's delivered by a kitty?
the kitty needs some laxatives. go rangers.
Damn, but where will I get my scandalously racist and anonymously rude commentary fix NOW?
Just wanted to say thank you for getting rid of the guest comments, they had gotten really bad recently.
JMH - Way to show Rangers love.
Good move gothamist.
"By Gregoire
[19] | 10/15/07 11:41AMDamn, but where will I get my scandalously racist and anonymously rude commentary fix NOW?"
LOL!
In the interest of citing your sources instead of just using a cropped and stolen comic, here's the actual source of the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19
Thanks for this! Great news, Gothamist. Now, the comments section can become an extension of the reporting you guys do here. Best news I have read all day.
putting the trolls out to pasture—
good work.
i'll still write what i want
this changes nothing
except that u now have a phoney email dress that u can sell
Great choice.
CHEERS! A great idea! This is already anonymous enough, but I guess some people need total anonymity by being a guest so they can insult people.
are jake and jen lovers?
The racist and anti-jewish lurker/guest(s?) really upset me and I spent time ranting against them, often driving me to commenting off-topic regarding the particular blog post.
Tolerance and free speech are complex issues, not absolutisms. Individual freedoms without social responsibility are not worth much. Censorship is wrong, but let the guests come forward and make their case with some minimal measure of accountability. Requiring the few seconds it takes to register in not unfair.
Thanks for trying this. Hopefully it will help.
Great News! *Hopefully* this will improve matters.
Good call, and thank you.
Gregoire:
[19] "Damn, but where will I get my scandalously racist and anonymously rude commentary fix NOW?"
Columbia University bathrooms.
Praise Jebus! And Gothamist. Some of those guest quotes were so out of line that it really was bringing down the whole site. Talk about social discourse gone awry . . .
Personally I LOVE Yappy. Sooooo cute!
Glad everyone is receptive to the change. And #29, God forbid!
And #2, thank you for the reminder that we need to be much better with what we publish. We do, even if you don't believe it, try to proof as much as we can, but we're churning out a lot of posts, so it can be difficult to keep up. I know I make mistakes, but I hope it's not as bad as it was, I don't know, a year ago, say. And really, it's distressing to see comments telling us we're stupid, although it's much worse seeing horrible narrow-minded comments.
I'm surprised nobody's blamed the change on the Jews yet - I thought they ran everything, or something. lol
whole heartedly love and I second the idea of a reply button. We still need a way to flag the offensive haters who actually do register. Kultur has to go...
That cat looks like it's melting.
Nice move, Gothamist. I don't think a valid email address is too much to ask to contribute to this site. There's no doubt there will be inane comments anyway...but i think a small bit of order will be a good thing.
Goodbye insane people. I'll be listening for your lunatic ravings on the nearest street corner.
RoDogg,
it's simple.
if someone wants to say something, they should register and log in.
that's alot easier for gothamist staff to implement then deleting all the trolling posts, as you suggested.
do you know how much work that would be?
so on the first day of no anon comments this site is completely boring.
@ Jen Chung:
i didn't mean to insinuate that you guys are stupid, just kinda stubborn. the editing HAS improved though! i've also noticed you guys have really toned down the "Gothamist went to Gothamist's grandmother's house this weekend" phrasing, which is good.
[41] Absolutely correct. And deleting offensive comments tends to only beget more comments. I tried cleaning up the comments section once; it was a Sisyphean task.
I heartily support this change.
Yay. Thank you.
Boy, I'm gonna miss the "equalized with lead" commenter. Oh wait, I'm not.
finally about time.
Simply perfect!
Accountability, accountability, accountability.
Nice move guys. Cheers!
It's about time!
great! I do admit that some of those anon guest comments where entertaining from time to time. But the sites better of without them.
does this mean you will start banning ip addresses?
read maevemealone's comment for a suggestion.
Wow! And I get an avatar??? I feel so young...
Good move, you guys. Glad to be back.
@maevemealone @zodak (incase that works in the future...) - your suggestion is noted and acted on.
@Neil: Holy cow that guy is vile!