STLtoday Comments Section (St. Louis: moving to, racism, business)

[STLCardsBlues1989]

Keep them or Drop them?

Story comments: Love them or hate them? Please let us know. | The Editors’ Desk | STLtoday (http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-editors-desk/the-editors-desk/2009/07/story-comments-love-them-or-hate-them-please-let-us-know/comment-page-10/#comment-4168 - broken link)

Personally, I say drop the comments section. They are often filled with ignorant and damaging comments. Even if they are policed, they often stay up too long, or are never taken down at all. The comments section can have some good, but the bad far outweighs it.

Drop it.

What do you think?

[hhillstl]

I would LOVE to see them drop the comments section. I subscribe to the PD daily, but since moving to St. Louis let's just say I've been less than thrilled with the quality of the paper - it seems like the reporting is less serious and substantial than the Beacon, which is online-only and relatively new. Allowing the inane comments, not to mention all the racism and bickering, to pollute those boards diminishes my opinion of the paper even further.

[kshe95girl]

I secretly wonder when I read the comments if some of the posters arent the same trolls that we see popping up in the Mo threads every so often

[SouthCity09]

drop or have people post with real names and photos so that they're not hiding behind a screen when they post some of that bs.

[AJohnston_STL]

Please everyone - visit the link and VOTE!

[kshe95girl]

not many votes as of this evening, 638, to be exact.

[ShadowCaver]

Originally Posted by kshe95girl

not many votes as of this evening, 638, to be exact.

As of noonish, counting mine now, 648... sad-interesting-curious to see not more votes.

Since I go to the stltoday.com site for much of my 'hometown/area' news and happenings, will read the comments often, hoping to get anothers' take on the article - and way too often, they leave me with a range from shock, eye-rolling, disgust, disbelief, embarrassment. The theory of having the comments, for discussions and debates, is great... however, it turns more than likely into a troll-filled idiotic BS-fest.

The quality of the on-line 'paper' too often is not that great, IMHO. Having articles just repeating what the AP yaps, w/o any/much further in-depth investigation, that is poor journalism. Granted, the stltoday.com site is free, has a wide variety of topics, but still... I do respect what they are doing, but would be great to not just have a boiler plate very little detailed article. True, its better than nothing, but at times, actually way too many times, the article that is posted leaves me, for one, wanting way much more info... and then a commenter will post stating that the Beacon, for example, has a more detailed story on the same subject.

[Marksman84]

So much for the concept of "freedom of speech," another freedom the libnuts, who now run the media like a fascist dictatorship, have taken from us...

[hhillstl]

Originally Posted by Marksman84

So much for the concept of "freedom of speech," another freedom the libnuts, who now run the media like a fascist dictatorship, have taken from us...

Freedom of speech obviously wouldn't apply to the message board for a corporation such as Lee Enterprises / Post Dispatch. Freedom of speech actually has nothing to do with this, but thank you for injecting politics into the discussion.

I would liken what happens daily on the Post-Dispatch's blogs to a business owner who chooses to allow hooligans to draw graffiti all over his place of business.

[kshe95girl]

^ some folks have to inject their personal agendas into any conversation, no matter how innocuous the subject