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We're Getting Rid of Comments on VICE.com(vice.com)
almost 7 years ago from Sam Solomon, Staff Product Designer at Salesloft
Jansen Tolle, almost 7 years ago From edgy to safe space. Sad.
Jason Miller, almost 7 years ago
If you ran a shop, you wouldn't allow customers to abuse each other in the store either. Nobody wants their place of business to be somewhere that people fear to visit.
Aubrey Johnson, almost 7 years ago
Unless your store sold stuff that got everyone polarized so extremely that they acted like that.
One thing I like about Huffpo is how entertaining the comment section is. It's absolutely bonkers. People have such thin skins. There's just assholes out there, move on and live on. If you're scared of the comment section of a website, seems like the issue isn't the comment section.
Jansen Tolle, almost 7 years ago Huffpo is awful, so this comparison just makes Vice look even worse.
Claire Lines, almost 7 years ago (edited almost 7 years ago ) Idk, comment sections can sometimes lead to amazing, productive, and open conversations. But more often than not, its people yelling at each other about their points of view.
The whole "safe space" argument is kind of dismissive to me. People are emotional and most are bad at actual debate.
Mike Wilson, almost 7 years ago (edited almost 7 years ago ) I just got a mental image of a millennial living somewhere in Bushwick (obviously)....hiding behind a couch in a dark room....while the light from their monitor cuts through the darkness...the Vice comment section is up....BOO!
Hilarious. Nothing is more scary than words on the internet. It's not like you can just choose not to read them or not click.
I'm sure they probably realized their readership doesn't want to be confronted with ideas outside the bubble they live in (ie. the "people on facebook" phenomenon), and moderating out thoughts that don't agree with your editorial slant is super expensive in terms of labor cost.
This is hilarious to me as well.
I definitely understand the legitimate complaint of innocent people getting doxxed and reporters receiving death threats. These are unacceptable.
"engaging in hate speech against pretty much every group imaginable" - doesn't this just negate the concept? Seems like everyone pisses everyone else off or something they do/say/wear/think/love etc makes people mad. Again, assholes everywhere. Discourse is healthy.
Philip Weber, almost 7 years ago
Discourse is healthy
That is like saying food is healthy. There are many kinds of food and many kinds of discourse.
Text based online discourse invariable leads to treating each other poorly. When you don't see someone's reaction while talking to them, you are capable of saying things you would never to say to someone's face.
For example, based on your comments on this thread, I'm angry at you. I think you are an asshole. It's easy for me to say that because you aren't a human to me. You're words on a screen. I'm 95% sure that if we met in person, we'd have a lot in common and get a long quite well.
Art Vandelay, almost 7 years ago
The best part is that you're allowed to think @Aubrey Johnson is an asshole cause you can have an opinion!
Comment threads are the dirty butthole of the internet but to remove it completely means the shit is gonna go somewhere else, not that its gone.
VICE being as edgy as it is just became more concerned with legalities of their own comment section than the stuff they report on.
Big fucking losers if you ask me. Then again, whoever said VICE was news and not entertainment is a straight up idiot, IMO.
FYI - I'd probably be considered an asshole too and that's just fine with me.
Hint: He's an asshole in real life too ;)
Text based online discourse invariable leads to treating each other poorly.
Seems like almost every piece of communication software we use today is in disagreement with that idea though (slack, messenger, iMessage, hangout, etc etc). People are obviously capable of communicating online via text just fine.
I think the issue you are inadvertently pointing to though is maturity.
Maybe I'm weird here but I don't think about other people online as "not-human" (including you Philip - I imagine you are a person, living your life, are real/have feelings, etc). I don't think meeting in person is a requirement to get along in a digital age. In fact, I think it's a requirement to learn TO get along and ignore those who don't play by the same societal rules we apply to real life. In VICE's case here, this would be like sewing everyone's mouthes shut vs just ignoring people or leaving the scene or whatever.
Of the people that you communicate with on Slack, messenger, iMessage, and Hangouts, how many have you not met in person? I would guess very few. Even if you talk to coworkers on Slack that you have never met in person, you have an ongoing relationship with them.
Comment threads are public discourse, mostly between strangers. You may think that you view everyone you talk to online as human, but you don't. No one does. You can't read a thread with tens or hundreds of participants and consider the nature of their existence.
My opinion (for now) is that there are problematic issues with comments. The discussion we are having right now, though both of us have made it slightly uncivil at times, is interesting to me, and I've learned something from it, so, hey, I guess I'm not against them. However, more often than not, I regret participation.
Dan G, almost 7 years ago
You should probably read this — https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/nov/28/snowflake-insult-disdain-young-people
Dismissing an entire generation of people (and people in general) is pretty grim, dude.
Jim Silverman, almost 7 years ago
Wow. Turned their whole site into a safe space.
what? no, they simply got tired of moderating the cesspool that is their comment section. this is certainly understandable and made very clear in the article.
vice isn't a place, it's a magazine. they're under no obligation to host discourse of any kind. feel free to flame them on the appropriate channels.
Seems like so many other online content distribution entities didn't have this problem though. I think that's the issue people take here.
New York Times, WaPo, CNN, Wall St Journal, Fox, MSNBC, Mail Online, The Guardian, USA Today, BBC News, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Tumblr - all seem to continue reporting news and delivering content WITH comments. Hell "YouTube comment section" is even a meme in and of itself.
New York Times, WaPo, CNN, Wall St Journal, Fox, MSNBC, Mail Online, The Guardian, USA Today, BBC News
these are huge media entities that dedicate a significant amount of resources to moderating comments. several simply outsource their comments to Facebook.
The Guardian actually wrote an essay on how shitty, complex, and futile comment moderation is. damned if you moderate, damned if you don't. eliminating comments entirely was likely the best product decision Vice could make in this situation.
YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Tumblr
these are not publications, they're entirely user-driven sites and not relevant to this discussion.
Wow. Turned their whole site into a safe space.