letter from the Editor
Question to NewWest.Net Readers: Required Registration For Comments?
By Courtney Lowery, 9-04-08
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We’ve been thick in the discussion of how to offer readers and commenters a better experience when interacting on our site and have batted about the idea of requiring users to register to comment.
It’s not a move we take lightly, and it’s one we’ve actually tried to avoid for a long time. But because we continue to have issues with keeping a handle on the trolls, on spam, sock puppets and the other unsavory things that comment sections can attract, we’d like to give required registration a shot—but only if it won’t deter the meaningful comment threads we’ve been able to foster here.
So, tell us dear readers and commenters, how would you feel about having to register, or log in, to comment? (Keep in mind that once logged in, you won’t have to log back in unless you’ve logged out or are on another computer.)
Thoughts? Questions? Fire away.
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Comments
And while I'm ranting about this, I must point at the Washington Post comments pages as a prime example of cloakery. It's not very productive dialogue. It deteriorates rather quickly...while one might recognize the pseudonym, there's no way to divine the context of the commenter.
I had to google sock puppet. Cute.
Registration by itself doesn't keep the garbage out, as the Idaho Statesman's comments illustrate so well. Absent or insufficient moderation can make things worse--only uncivil and combative participants will be interested in joining an uncivil and combative forum.