Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Sacramento Bee Comments Suspended

Comments to stories and commentary in the Sacramento Bee were temporarily suspended a day or two ago, just as the Bee promised. I can't stand it. Even if I don't comment myself I often like to read comments made by others. 

It's kinda like some of us agreed upon back in the days of the Humboldt Herald: A blog that doesn't accept comments is only half a blog, and so it is with newspapers now. Funny that it wasn't that long ago that we wouldn't have even thought about online commenting to news items.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that one SacBee reader is glad the comments are gone. What gets me is I can't comment on his letter!

4 Comments:

At 7:58 AM, Anonymous Craig said...

"Let skilled moderators (public volunteers, if necessary) select a small sample of well-written, representative submissions for any story.".............

Now there's a thought, let's pick and choose whatever comment we deem fit. Can anyone say "censorship"?

All one has to do is look at the comment section at TS to see how the number of comments went into the toilet when TS switched to Facebook and email addresses.

Thanks Fred.... for still having an anonymous option on your blog posting, since it will get more people to open up and give an opinion.

 
At 8:19 AM, Blogger Fred Mangels said...

The Bee is planning on not allowing anonymous comments, per se. People will have to log in some how or another. How they end up doing it, I don't think they even know yet.

 
At 9:21 AM, Anonymous Craig said...


Fred, if they go to a format similar to LoCo, then I'd be ok with that, but if one has to give their really name in order to post, then very few people will post an opinion, which I feel only leads to one sided and sanitized comments.

 
At 9:27 AM, Blogger Fred Mangels said...

I believe both SacBee and LCO both use Disqus comments. As far as I'm concerned Disqus is head and shoulders above Facebook when it comes to comments. Whether they stay with Disqus, which I hope they do, and how they go about requiring a log in is the question.

The SacBee is asking for input so send them a comment. I've already made mine, which basically begged them not to use Facebook comments.

Log in doesn't matter to me, personally, as I always post under my own name.

 

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