Managing participation on the web
A week after proposing changes to the way it manages the comments from its huge and dynamic community of readers, Engadget has decided to close all comments for a week to rethink things.
The move raises a key question for all web site managers: whether or not to try to develop threads that genuinely add something to the original article (in some cases people visit a site as much as anything to read the comments), or to accept that without really serious oversight, most threads just end up being troll ghettoes. This is a topic I’ve been studying for years now, based in large part on my own experience of managing this page, which after a few ups and downs, I think now offers readers a largely positive experience. I have said this many times, and I’ll say it again: the contributions people make to the threads on my site are often more interesting than my original post, and they are one of the main reasons I continue to write.
Nevertheless, it has to be said that unless managed properly, most comment threads end up being a race to the bottom. The subject matter is an issue as well. Soccer, for example, seems to bring out the worst in people, whereas poetry or philosophy will generally attract more considered opinions. That said, there are exceptions, and when readers believe they can learn something from other contributors, they tend to be more careful about what they say. Sites like Reddit or Quora, for example, which basically live from comments, have managed to create largely positive ecosystems that even attract well-known and respected commentators or experts.
But the majority of websites are not Reddit or Quora. For the rest of us, here are a few ideas that might help improve things:
- Moderating: as a community grows, more moderation is required. A balance is required: it’s not viable to moderate all comments before publishing them, and neither is it realistic to try to play catch up once they have been posted. My solution is to allow regular, trusted contributors to comment without a filter, while newcomers or those with a history of bad behavior are moderated.
- Rules: it is difficult to run a community if there aren’t a set of rules available that can justify closing an account or removing offensive comments.
- Anonymity: blaming the failure of a community on commentators being able to “hide behind” a false name is usually a mistake. Aside from being difficult to implement, forcing people to use their own names can inhibit people, and in some cases even threaten their safety. Anonymity is a right and should be respected.
- Word filters don’t work. It is easy to sow chaos by using this or that word, and it also prevents people from being ironic, as well as creating unneeded barriers. The complexity of language and the difficulties of understanding irony mean that artificial intelligence has a limited role to play in managing threads.
- Other control mechanisms, such as those designed to prevent astroturfing (using multiple identities to press a particular argument) can be difficult to implement, but at least can make life difficult for troublemakers.
- Collective moderating: even a system like mine can suffer overload when hundreds of people want to join in a thread. This is when it becomes essential to enlist moderators from the existing community, although they will require supervision.
- Instant karma’s gonna get you: contributors to the thread and their comments are evaluated by other users through simple approval systems. Communities that link karma with an informal metric based on expertise or authority, as is the case with some software development communities, tend to function best.
- Balance and sensitivity. Not even the best rules system can foresee every problem, which means that some degree of manual fine tuning will always be necessary. Some publications invite the author of a piece to moderate comments to it. This can encourage contributors to think more carefully about the impact on readers of their writing and the comments their piece will likely generate.
These are just a few of the guidelines that I have seen used over the years to manage sites, including this page. This is a topic with important repercussions, and can make a huge difference to the popularity and quality of a web page, creating real value and a positive experience for users. What’s more, a well-managed comments thread is a celebration of that most important feature of the internet: two-way communication.
(En español, aquí)
