A news website is generally no stranger to controversy. However for Philly.com, much of the controversy takes place in its infamous comment sections. Philly.com’s comments are getting out of hand, and soon the website must decide once and for all if it will continue to allow them.
Philly.com’s comment sections have long plagued an otherwise quality news website. Commenters often overwhelm stories with nonsensically vicious, racist, sexist and downright nasty comments. The most recent example of this is the website’s story on Fox 29 firing its weatherman John Bolaris. Even seemingly tame stories get special treatment from the Philly.com comments, including Stu Byko’s recap of the New Year’s Day Mummers Parade.
Philly.com has become wary of its anonymous commenters. The news website now disables comments on its more controversial stories. On other stories, Philly.com forces users to log into their Facebook accounts to comment. This attaches a profile picture and name to all comments, theoretically deterring hateful speech.
Unfortunately for Philly.com, the Facebook log in system hasn’t quite worked to its advantage. The comments continue to be just as brutal as ever, forcing the news website to disable comments within hours of posting many new stories.
Comment sections can be a great way to increase user engagement, but what do you do when users get out of hand? Philly.com needs to decide if this added engagement is worth the humiliating content.
If the website decides to allow comments, I would suggest it creates a set of guidelines setting acceptable comment content dimensions, much like NewsWorks’ Community Discussion Guidelines.
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