Internet news comments

[cbo111]

For the past couple years I have, for reasons unknown to me, fallen into the habit of reading viewer comments at the end of Yahoo or google news articles. They used to provide some insight, humor, a different perspective. But recently they are little more than an angry series of rants by some pretty bitter folks. Too bad, it has ruined what could have been a valuable and fun mode of communication.
Chuck


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[REWahoo]

Maybe you missed this thread...

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/any-one-read-time-magazine-83314.html

... and this: NPR Website To Get Rid Of Comments

It's ugly out there...

 

[travelover]

You are better off not reading them. The people most likely to post are looking for an emotional reaction, not an intelligent discussion.

 

[splitwdw]

You are better off not reading them. The people most likely to post are looking for an emotional reaction, not an intelligent discussion.

+1 I never read comments on articles I read until I saw some people here talking about the comments. I looked once and that was enough.

 

[audreyh1]

For the past couple years I have, for reasons unknown to me, fallen into the habit of reading viewer comments at the end of Yahoo or google news articles. They used to provide some insight, humor, a different perspective. But recently they are little more than an angry series of rants by some pretty bitter folks. Too bad, it has ruined what could have been a valuable and fun mode of communication.
Chuck


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

I recently read someone's odd analysis of the recent USGS announcement of finding a huge new shale formation in the Permian Basin - the biggest ever (so far).

A commenter used this as an opportunity to explain that this showed that oil had been created much faster than thought and obviously occurred less than 5000 years ago after the great flood. OK.....

Anyway - I have been noticing a lot more machine-gun-like drive-by comments designed to mow other commenters down along with various politicians and other folks.

 

[BLS53]

Sports related sites are the worst. It's like an 8th grade locker room.

Another are the forums on the IMDB movies site.

You're going to have this anywhere there's little or no moderation.

Considering the size of the site and number of articles, it always amazes me how well the Wikipedia talk sections are moderated.

 

[dixonge]

Are online comments full of paid lies? | Computerworld

 

[anymoose]

Sports related sites are the worst. It's like an 8th grade locker room.

Part of the issue may actually be who actually has access to the discussion. When I was a kid, I was not privy to adult conversations. We kids were shooed away or not even in the same rooms, halls, bars where those conversations were happening. Everyone is more or less equal on the Internet regardless of knowledge or experience. Technology has helped change the times.

 

[Amethyst]

I stopped looking at comments. Once in a while, comments can be interesting, but I saw a lot of the same poster-names on some newspaper sites, always grinding some goofy axe. I assumed they are lonely (for good reason!) and have nobody else to talk to.

 

[travelover]

Are online comments full of paid lies? | Computerworld

Excuse me, but your link is naked........

Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission this week fined Korean conglomerate Samsung $340,000 for "astroturfing."
Specifically, the Taiwanese FTC said Samsung paid two "marketing firms" more than $100,000 to hire people to "highlight the shortcomings of competing products," engage in the "disinfection of negative news about Samsung products," positively review Samsung products and, (in a bizarre turn of phrase), do "palindromic Samsung product marketing," whatever that means.

 

[audreyh1]

Are online comments full of paid lies? | Computerworld

Companies paying for good reviews or to post bad reviews of competitors products. Paying "press" as well.

There is that issue. We have become increasingly suspicious of online reviews. For some products it's hard to find anything but freebie reviews. At least they tend to self-identify on Amazon.

This is also infecting travel reviews - you have to read carefully as there is no other indication other than the review uses superlatives and no specifics. There are whole companies out there now who specialize in managing the TripAdvisor presence for clients, and TripAdvisor themselves provides different levels of "service" depending on the relationship with the companies reviewed on their site.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Like everything else it seems, comments and reviews (both positive and negative) could be monetized for the commenter, and so they were. Almost makes me miss the honest unpaid troll in mom's basement.

 

[Rosie]

I feel the same way about Yelp reviews -- nowadays yelp reviews seem to be a place to air one's grievances, with little or no relevance to the place being reviewed.

It's become one big Festivus celebration.

 

[jcretire77]

Just before retirement my lunch buddies were coming up with 'j*bs' that I could have to keep me busy. Internet Troll was one of my favorites!

 

[ABQ2015]

I always read the comments and often these are my favorite part of the article. I don't care for nasty, juvenile responses or consumer complaints that are not relevant. But in response to a political or financial or news items, the responses are often informative and provide the other perspective or additional info that is missing from the article. Sometimes I learn more from reading the comments than from the article. Also retorts may be written in a dry, sarcastic way but very articulate, witty, and well written - I enjoy these even if I don't agree with the viewpoint.

 

[Chris7]

I often find them to be fun sources of entertainment. :O)

 

[BLS53]

Where I live, there's a reviewer on Google, who has given just about every restaurant in town one star, with the one sentence comment: "This place is nasty".

 

[O2Bfree]

Some of the meanest comments I ever read were on CNN's religion pages. CNN eventually disabled commenting for that section (and others later), citing the surprisingly passionate opinions of their readers as a reason. Their site doesn't have a religion section anymore, at least not that I can see.

 

[dixonge]

Like everything else it seems, comments and reviews (both positive and negative) could be monetized for the commenter, and so they were. Almost makes me miss the honest unpaid troll in mom's basement.

I have questions. First, why was your Mom keeping a troll in her basement? Second, are you *sure* he was honest? Trolls are notorious for deception. And third, why in the world wouldn't you pay the poor bastard? I only ask because you seem to be almost nostalgic for him.

 

[Amethyst]

He moved out of the basement, that's what. He now weighs 400 pounds and sits on the bed.

Almost makes me miss the honest unpaid troll in mom's basement.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Pay him? Once the unpaid commenting gig fell through, he wrote a 3d graphics program and sold it for a brazillion dollars at age 18, bought the state of Montana, and writes a retirement blog (trollinthebasement.com) telling everyone they can do it too!