[imc-uk-moderation] Hidden abusive comments, was: Re: Query about promotion.

[maqui]

Hiya

On Wednesday, April 9, 2008, at 08:25  pm, Chris wrote:

> I'd be happy to see lots more comments on that thread
> hidden, I don't think any abusive is acceptable, it's a
> shame that no other admin seems to want get involved with
> this, so it's been left to me to do all the moderation of
> this thread (well ana did promote one comment but nobody
> has hidden stuff apart from me).

On Wednesday, April 9, 2008, at 08:45  pm, Shiar wrote:

> This in no way means that other comments directed at you have not 
> breached
> the guidelines and should not be hidden. In fact, this is the first 
> time
> in the last few weeks that i've found some time to chip in, and i'm 
> just
> going in now to hide some of those sick comments.

I think that as long as comments are called just that "comments" we are 
going to get all sorts of very personal rants / opinions which some are 
going to be written in an abusive manner. I am not saying this as an 
excuse, but I think it is just a fact. Having said that I agree in that 
the tone of quite a few of the comments on that Rovic's thread breached 
the 'abuse' guideline, so I have no problem with the hiding them.

But what I want to say is that I think we should seriously think abut 
changing how we deal with comments, and maybe clarify what purpose they 
are supposed to serve. The way I understood the comments facility is 
that they are more for adding / correcting information directly related 
to the article, than just a place to be able to say whatever one 
personally think about the article, the subject, and so on. I may be 
wrong, but that's how I personally see the worth of enabling 'comments' 
to be posted.

I think the word comment misleads this purpose, and that's why I like 
very much the Additions. I think that a comment which is just about 
'this is how/what I think' is more like material for a forum than for a 
news site, and that in this era of the so called 'web2.0' thing where 
it is all apparently about 'social interaction' and that, people take 
the to say something too much for granted. Anywhere you go on the web 
these days you can leave a 'comment' even if you don't have much to 
say, or if what you've got to say it is purely a personal view.That may 
be ok in some projects or forums, but I don't think the articles in 
Indymedia benefit much from this approach in general.

I don't know, but maybe we should think about changing the word 
'comment' for 'addition' or something like that. I think we briefly 
mentioned this at the last network meeting in Nottingham but I don't 
remember what views people had on this.

Cheers
maqui