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Did Gamespot just remove comments from all of their reviews?
- Thread starter randomengine
- Start date
Nocturno999
Member
Bad idea. The comment section needs to be heavily moderated.
It's for the best.
But by whom and for how long?
Let actual discussion take place in the proper message boards if one is necessary.
But by whom and for how long?
Let actual discussion take place in the proper message boards if one is necessary.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
The majority of comments sections were created as a means to build communities. In the early days of the internet, this made sense, as social media was, by that point, not much more than messageboards, usenet, and IRC.
As time went on, and sites like friendster, myspace, and facebook began popping up, comments sections became less necessary, as seen by the fact intelligent comments and community building discussion largely disappeared as people who appreciated the social aspect of the comments section migrated away to these networks that essentially let users build their own messageboards/comments sections as they saw fit, curating the list of people they wished to hear from.
Now, with facebook/twitter taking up most of that weight, with dedicated forums/messageboards picking up the rest of the slack, comments sections are essentially like the appendix of the internet. It's a thing that maybe was necessary once, but isn't needed any longer, as its function has been replaced entirely by other, much more well read means.
There's absolutely no reason to keep them, as they basically cater only to people who have yet to figure out better conversations are happening elsewhere, and happening much more easily and much more manageable. When it comes to online discourse, people still frequenting comments sections are not too much different than older people who still brag about not owning a cellphone. They COULD improve the way they communicate and spend their time talking, but they willingly refuse to.
Plus most sites are just now realizing whatever percieved bump in views having that comments section tagged to the bottom of your site might bring is pretty much NOTHING compared to the views and time spent reading thanks to a link or a share on any number of other social media platforms.
Not to mention that in the decade+ of comments sections existing, the majority of readers have been essentially trained to skim the article as fast as possible to get to the "good shit," which is not much more than Springer audience throwing nested elbows at each other. Think about how many shared articles you've seen that either come with the warning "Don't read the comments" or "Man, watch out for the comments," all which basically ensure the article (especially if it's more than 400 words long" is going to be raced through to get to the part that sounds the most enticing as a reader: Watching people fight each other and say stupid shit.
So, look at it from an editor's point of view:
You're not building a community out of your commenters
You're not getting any real extra money out of those commenters
You're devaluing the work of your writers by allowing those commenters to glue themselves to their pieces.
Why the fuck would you keep them outside of basic inertia and borked conventional wisdom that says you're supposed to have them there?
Basically - without a comments section for people to race towards the instant they read a headline - people might have to actually READ an article. And then digest it for a second, before going back to their twitter/facebook/tumblr, or their dedicated, moderated messageboard of choice, and weighing in on their own.
As time went on, and sites like friendster, myspace, and facebook began popping up, comments sections became less necessary, as seen by the fact intelligent comments and community building discussion largely disappeared as people who appreciated the social aspect of the comments section migrated away to these networks that essentially let users build their own messageboards/comments sections as they saw fit, curating the list of people they wished to hear from.
Now, with facebook/twitter taking up most of that weight, with dedicated forums/messageboards picking up the rest of the slack, comments sections are essentially like the appendix of the internet. It's a thing that maybe was necessary once, but isn't needed any longer, as its function has been replaced entirely by other, much more well read means.
There's absolutely no reason to keep them, as they basically cater only to people who have yet to figure out better conversations are happening elsewhere, and happening much more easily and much more manageable. When it comes to online discourse, people still frequenting comments sections are not too much different than older people who still brag about not owning a cellphone. They COULD improve the way they communicate and spend their time talking, but they willingly refuse to.
Plus most sites are just now realizing whatever percieved bump in views having that comments section tagged to the bottom of your site might bring is pretty much NOTHING compared to the views and time spent reading thanks to a link or a share on any number of other social media platforms.
Not to mention that in the decade+ of comments sections existing, the majority of readers have been essentially trained to skim the article as fast as possible to get to the "good shit," which is not much more than Springer audience throwing nested elbows at each other. Think about how many shared articles you've seen that either come with the warning "Don't read the comments" or "Man, watch out for the comments," all which basically ensure the article (especially if it's more than 400 words long" is going to be raced through to get to the part that sounds the most enticing as a reader: Watching people fight each other and say stupid shit.
So, look at it from an editor's point of view:
You're not building a community out of your commenters
You're not getting any real extra money out of those commenters
You're devaluing the work of your writers by allowing those commenters to glue themselves to their pieces.
Why the fuck would you keep them outside of basic inertia and borked conventional wisdom that says you're supposed to have them there?
Basically - without a comments section for people to race towards the instant they read a headline - people might have to actually READ an article. And then digest it for a second, before going back to their twitter/facebook/tumblr, or their dedicated, moderated messageboard of choice, and weighing in on their own.
Stone Ocean
Member
Nothing good has ever come from reviews in which you can't comment on either.
Vigilant Walrus
Member
Have you seen the comments for articles made by the transgendered GS staffer? Holy shitt. Her reviews on youtube are horrifying.
Nothing is stopping anyone from creating a discussion about a review in their public forum or any other public forum.
But when most comments result in hate speech, mindless vitriol or "first", they can be eliminated. If people really still want them, they should use a facebook API so they can still wash their hands of it all.
silentspork
Member
I am not against most sites toning down comments sections, they are 99% of the time a cesspool unless they are carefully curated.
wookieofdoom
Member
They still have comments guys. They just moved them. Look to the left of the opening paragraph. There's a little word balloon icon that's above the facebook and twitter buttons. For some reason they won't load for me in Chrome but they do in Safari.
Zeyphersan
Banned
What benefit does a review receive from having a comments section? There's theoretical benefit, but all it turns into is a shitshow with people yelling at the reviewer, yelling at each other, console wars-ing, etc. If you want a discussion about the game/review, you'd go seek it elsewhere.
thesolidshark
Member
I get the feeling that idiots simply being on the internet already ruin it for a lot of people, whether comments are there or not.
Personally, I'm not sure that the comment removal is such a good move. Yes, I agree that there can be a lot of dumb or worse comments going around in them, but the total removal strikes me as bad as when certain comments are stricken from some comment sections (I think I've heard this happen at Polygon and a few other sites).
This is probably from the IGN Destiny comments section (the post is from the GAF Destiny review thread), and absolutely a reason why I'm always in-favor of having them. Even if there are other forums to speak, even if this is a kind of outlier comment where 20x the other comments won't be as worth it, it's still worth keeping the comment section in-tact to me. It's a much better place for the article authors to find thorough and thoughtful opinions like this, or are reminded of mistakes they made (grammatic and info mistakes, not opinions).
Bigmac1910
Member
I think Eurogamer has found a happy medium in their comments section. People can up/down vote a comment, and one can choose a "level" if the comment should be shown or not. So if you choose -5 down votes, and the comment has been down voted more than five times, then it's "closed", and you have to press that comment to see it. Otherwise it's just out of view and you don't even have to see it. Leaving mostly the more level headed comments visible while keeping the crap "invisible". This choice can be made in either a negative or positive direction as well. Not sure why other sites haven't implemented this system yet.
Zeyphersan
Banned
It's a Reddit system, and it needs to be contained before it infects more of the internet
thewhitehawk
Member
Depends on your audience. I happen to have been part of tech sites with comments sections where intelligent discussions occurred and participate in some that occasionally still do. But unfortunately you can't pick your audience, only create content that caters well to specific types of people. Unfortunately, that doesn't detract people that disagree with you from unleashing some stupid rhetoric about how your mother is something.
CyanideFuse
Member
And I have read a lot of decent comments down voted for no other reason that it does not fit in with the voter's opinion. You may not agree but if a comment is well put then I see no reason to down vote. Just don't bother to vote.
I don't understand why people are so happy for comments being removed. Some of there are toxic yeah but some of them are legit criticism too. Instead of removing them they should maybe moderate them better? When your car has a problem you try to fix the problem of the car so it works again, you don't throw the entire car in the garbage. No comments means no free speech just because some of them are toxic doesn't mean everyone should pay the price because of the few.
The internet doesn't have a bill of rights or a constitution.
D
Deleted member 59090
Unconfirmed Member
This was the place I went to check immediately and there's like 20 comments under it so I guess it's not a new thing that they remove comments XD
JackAubrey
Member
Another vote for the death of comments here.
Great you have an opinion on the thing I've made - write about it somewhere you own or social media. Don't scrawl your abusive shit across my thing.
Great you have an opinion on the thing I've made - write about it somewhere you own or social media. Don't scrawl your abusive shit across my thing.
down 2 orth
Member
Nor does free speech require legislation.
Bigmac1910
Member
Yeah I've seen that, but it's not as bad as you make it out to be. I also feel that it's a better option than just removing the whole comment system, just because of the 5% that want to troll.
@Zeyphersan
I didn't know it was the Reddit system, I think Reddit is kinda messy, so I rarely go there.
Kagoshima_Luke
Gold Member
I wish there was a browser plug-in that sent the NeoGAF mods out ahead of me to sanitize all comments sections and forums I visit on the internet.