Hmm, as someone who's run communities for a while, I'd have to say that the quality of a comments section is very heavily dependent on the topic, audience and how well you moderate it.
Over on YouTube for instance, I've had very few negative comments on my videos, and usually found the comments section under them to be a mostly civil place where I can help out people who had trouble with a walkthrough or guide.
Same goes with the comments on blog articles I wrote in the past too. The comments have generally stayed on topic, were always free of personal attacks, etc.
Comment sections can certainly be hellholes, and for large media outlets they usually are. We all know how bad they are on stuff like the BBC, Daily Mail, Guardian, etc.
But they don't necessarily have to be, and they can be entirely valuable if moderated well and related to a topic people don't treat like its the end of the world.
Over on YouTube for instance, I've had very few negative comments on my videos, and usually found the comments section under them to be a mostly civil place where I can help out people who had trouble with a walkthrough or guide.
Same goes with the comments on blog articles I wrote in the past too. The comments have generally stayed on topic, were always free of personal attacks, etc.
Comment sections can certainly be hellholes, and for large media outlets they usually are. We all know how bad they are on stuff like the BBC, Daily Mail, Guardian, etc.
But they don't necessarily have to be, and they can be entirely valuable if moderated well and related to a topic people don't treat like its the end of the world.
reply