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TOPICS: comments, newspaper, public editor
Before we left for break, the Collegiate Times management and I took some time out for a lunch meeting with a few figures around campus. Present were representatives from undergraduate and graduate organizations, as well as administration and the Women’s Center. We all had a constructive conversation about what exactly should be appearing alongside the online version of the CT.
What’s the problem, you might ask? Well if you ever get a chance to glance at comments that readers put on our stories, you’d understand a bit more. We were trying to get to the bottom of the primary concern several people in our community have about our online commenting system: whether it is destructive or harmful to the climate of Tech’s campus.
To give you an idea of our readership, I’ll give you some numbers. Our Tuesday through Friday print circulation is currently 12,500 copies. Online, our traffic this semester has ranged from 20,000 to 30,000 visitors a week depending on the week. Our Web site gets traffic from all over the world, but 50 percent of traffic is from the state of Virginia. Further, 50 percent of the Virginia traffic is in Blacksburg.
In other words, 25 percent of the overall Web traffic comes from people in Blacksburg. Of those who read our online content, 55 percent are returning visitors. These numbers have shown a steady increase in past years. That being said, since only 25 percent of our online readership is actually part of our Blacksburg community — as opposed to alumni, parents, and others invested in Virginia Tech — one could debate if the online community is representative of Tech and the surrounding areas.
While it says right on our print version that we are serving the Blacksburg community, it is necessary to be reminded that the CT is part of a non-profit called Educational Media Company at Virginia Tech, which encompasses student media at Tech. We, of course, still try to work with the university, as there are countless individuals who work with us, in order to provide the community the very best newspaper possible.
However, when we cross the line into the online version of the CT, areas that are otherwise clear become fuzzy. When it comes to online commenting and anonymity, the CT staff has engaged in long debates with our advisers and others around the university as to whether our current system is, in fact, the best system. Currently, users are not required to register in order to comment on our stories. We intend to keep it that way.
While some would say that making people register would eliminate many of the hurtful, degrading, vulgar, racist and deconstructive comments that anonymous users submit, it wouldn’t be a perfect system. We also believe it would eliminate a number of constructive yet critical comments that students or other community members may not want their name attached to.
In order to meet somewhere in the middle, we have begun to turn the wheels as far as moving toward a community moderation format for our Web site. As it stands now, I, the public editor, am the sole moderator. Abiding by the candidates of deletion, I am responsible to delete comments from our Web site. I was hired in this position because my judgment was trusted, and our paper follows firm candidates of deletion so that there is a standard of what should be deleted and what is permissible.
It’s also important to send a message of freedom of speech and the availability of an open forum since we are a local newspaper. You, as a reader, don’t often get a chance to be so close to the content of a newspaper.
The paper is very local so we don’t want to take away the constructive comments of readers who are uncomfortable attaching their name to an opinion. Even if they were to have their name known by our staff, an individual might not want to trust us — a group of students — with his identity in connection to a critical comment.
Leave a comment 39 Comments Write a letter to the editor
All letters to the editor must include a name, e-mail, daytime phone number and affiliation to Virginia Tech. Affiliation includes: year and major for students; position and department for faculty and staff; current city for alumni and parents.
By submitting your comment, you agree that it will not:
Comments that violate these guidelines will be moderated by the public editor and will then be buried in the comments section.
One of the best things you can do to limit vulgar comments would be to screen out offensive opinion articles. A recent article "Racism sexism still prevalent today despite what many think" is a good example of the ignorance that finds it's way onto our opinion page. Filtering out articles like that will go a long way to calming down people in the comments section.
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That is the dumbest suggestion I've ever heard. You're asking them to censor articles because they might be controversial. Next, you'll only want articles about growing flowers in the paper...
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It's not at all dumb John. If you want people to be more respectful in the comments section you simply don't give them something to react to. There was no reason to have that ignorant racist article and by publishing it the CT practically encouraged the comments that ensued.
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One problem with the DIGG system is that controversial (but appropriate) comments get buried.
For example, if there's a comment about gun control, the anti-violence-prevention folks will send the link to their friends, who will all show up to mod down the comment. And frankly, the gun control folks are likely to do the same for comments with which they disagree.
One solution is to keep track of both up-moderation and down-moderation. If something only gets down votes, it's probably inappropriate; likewise, if something only gets up votes, it's probably okay; but if it gets lots of both, down-moderation should be mostly ignored.
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Only our heroic John Woods would make a statement as arrogant as "anti-violence-prevention folks". Just goes to show you how the leaders of anti-self-defense groups think.
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Correction to what you said gun control = anti-self-defense. Pro gun would be something along the lines of anti-disarming-criminal-groups. That's just off the top of my head, I have no idea what you Brady ideologues think of us.
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I think Cho would find this offensive.
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Just add a report spam button if necessary, the community moderating would do the opposite of what you want by, as the above poster stated, burying reasonable arguments disliked by the majority.
There are never amazingly large numbers of comments and when there are a report abuse button would allow you to quickly find the really bad ones.
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The Flag Comment button is the CT's version of "Report Abuse," I think.
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We're all adults here, how about we just leave the comments alone. If someone makes an offensive comment we can respond like the academics we are training to be rather than just sweeping it under the rug and pretending it never happened.
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Shameless plug for the Virginia Tech subreddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/VirginiaTech/
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I'd suggest you take a look at ESPN's comment format. You have to register, but they rarely ban people. The best part about it is it has a spam button so issues get taken care of quickly. If you do anything, get a spam button.
Also, I don't get why you're so opposed to making people register. For one, you don't have many commentors to begin with. People will be less likely spam if they have to register. On top of that, if they do register and spam, you can ban the account. It's ridiculously simple. Don't take this to be offensive but maybe you should get out of the meetings with people on their high horses and just use some common sense.
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But like they were saying if you make people register than people wouldn't make constructive yet critical comments. By keeping anonymous posting people are more honest about their ideas.
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I am saddened by the notion that we can only practice honesty and submit critical comments anonymously. Shouldn't we, as members of an academic community, feel free to exchange well reasoned, critical, construction opinions any time, with our names attached?
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On controversial issues though students may fear expressing themselves. I myself have been threatened with violence by someone with an opposing view. If it wasn't for anonymous posting I could have been accosted. It's a good safety measure.
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Echo that other comment, Dr. Spencer. With all the PC bull that this university pushes with the "Principles of Collectivism", er, "Community" I KNOW I will be flambasted if I put my name on things. With love, one of your faculty.
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Ever hear of a username? Its not your real name...
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You're exactly right about userneames. They are not real names so what is the point of having them? Answer: they allow companies to collect information about your habits and target advertising at you.
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To the commenter who is concerned about violent responses to his/her comments: if people are being threatened for holding certain views, don't we want to know who's threatening them?
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Well it doesn't matter if we're all allowed to be anonymous than no one is in danger.
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One of the things you agree to when commenting now is not to post a comment that "lacks any sort of structure." Perhaps if the editors applied that rule to what articles were published there would be more thoughtful comments? Are you really that concerned about online comments to the newspaper being harmful to the campus community? Is unrestricted speech that much of a threat? I for one am glad that you are doing everything you can to show how irrelevant newspapers have become in the internet age. You don't have enough respect for your readership to filter out vulgar or pointless comments so you the High Czar must selflessly filter it for them. Someone actually gets paid to filter comments on the student newspaper? No wonder tuition is so high.
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You're stupid. it says right in the column that the guy wrote that the ct doesn't get vt funding. so it would have no effect on tuition.
and it doesn't look like it's something the ct cares about, it's something that other brough tto heir attention. did you read this article before you commented?
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"tto heir attention" Did you read your comment before you posted?
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Whoops, you forgot to make sense...
Also, you're wrong. The author didn't say that CT doesn't get funding from VT. In fact if you click the link in the article it says this on the "about us" page.
"EMCVTis a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization created by Virginia Tech in 1997..."
Did you read the article before you commented?
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The CT actually gets some funding from student fees, about $70K annually, so students should feel some ownership of it and should have some say in how the CT operates. They also have some prime real estate office space in Squires (presumably also funded by student fees).
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This comment is not actually left by the Provost, but by my leaving it in his name I'm trying to make the point of how dangerous the current system can be when no registration is required.
As a semi-regular reader of the CT, I often don't comment because I don't feel like getting into an e-brawl with Anonymous writers. But I'm always happy to exchange opinions, particularly constructive and well-reasoned ones, with people who are willing to take responsibility for their views.
For now I remain
Dr. Mark McNamee, Provost
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One of the concerns brought up at the above mentioned meeting between university community members and CT representatives was the lack of accountability and constructive dialogue on the CT website. Few articles generate comments, but those that do often solicit hostile, threatening, demeaning remarks that are ultimately detrimental to the campus climate.
Sharing the readership numbers with us is useful and educational. However, even though less than 25% of the online readership resides in Blacksburg, the perception will remain that the CT is Virginia Tech's newspaper. Thus we should care how its tone and content reflects on us.
Dr. Rick Ferraro (?)
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What are you afraid of, THE TRUTH? If you're all adults and made it to college, then don't YOU think you can handle the truth or do you need the PC police taking care of your feelings, like the military did in the Fort Hood massacre?
I would think at the college with the largest MASS MURDER in US history you would realize the only person making good decisions for you is you and you need an open information system in order to do that to the best of your ability.
Take a gander and think about it, please.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYYrWrS6fU4
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Bravo, well put
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Write that as a letter to the editor it has nothing to do with what we are talking about.
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This comment has been buried by moderation (show comment)
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The above comment was sarcasm. Yolande did write the poem and does charge large speaking fees but she did not post "that" comment on CT.
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Are my comments and links causing you concern? Is the MSA threatening to sue you for leaving my comments up? Am I educating the student populace to the TRUTH about them?
http://www.meforum.org/603/islamisms-campus-club-the-muslim-students
Muslim Students Association
The MSA preaches self-segregation: its newly established National Religious Accommodations Task Force directs local MSA chapters to insist that universities provide separate housing and meals for Muslims only. The segregation practiced by the MSA has actually marginalized its own female members: there is a common attitude that strict segregation should exist between the genders and that sisters should not appear in public. On an MSA mailing list, a popular article gives a long list of conditions that women must fulfill to gain access to the mosque. These include obtaining permission from her male guardian, wearing hijab [veil], not wearing "fancy clothes" or perfume, not mixing with men, leaving immediately after the prayer, etc. Additionally The MSA has played a major role in spreading Wahhabism.
http://www.stopshariahnow.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=459&Itemid=157
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Yet consider some of these recent activities of the MSA:
*
At a meeting in Queensborough Community College in New York in March 2003, a guest speaker named Faheed declared, "We reject the U.N., reject America, reject all law and order. Don't lobby Congress or protest because we don't recognize Congress. The only relationship you should have with America is to topple it Eventually there will be a Muslim in the White House dictating the laws of Shariah."[2]
*
During an October 2000 anti-Israeli protest, former MSA president Ahmed Shama at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) stood before the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles, shouting "Victory to Islam! Death to the Jews!" MSA West president Sohail Shakr declared at the same rally, "the biggest impediment to peace [in the Middle East] has been the existence of the Zionist entity in the middle of the Muslim world."[3]
*
Prior to September 11, 2001, the MSA formally assisted three Islamic charities in fundraising: the Holy Land Foundation, Global Relief, and Benevolence Foundation. After that date, all three were accused by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of having serious links to terrorism and were ordered closed. The MSA issued a formal statement of protest: "How three of the nation's largest Muslim charities could be made inoperable at the peak of the giving season of Ramadan seemed unbelievable."[4]
http://www.meforum.org/603/islamisms-campus-club-the-muslim-students
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It has everything to do with what we are talking about. How PC is killing people and America. Hopefully you will make the connection how Islam is using the sensitive PC crowd and Americas rights and freedoms to destroy us.
EVERYTHING to do with censorship, intimidation, "MODERATION"................
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It has everything to do with the fact that you are a troll. Yes Muslims suck but that's not the issue here.
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'yes muslims suck' - amazing. gotta love my fellow humankind.
good to see that the CT is looking into this. and someone else voiced it above- why rule out registering folks to comment? of course it's not perfect, but you'd be able to get better stats on site traffic and activity (and how many voices are actually saying something), i'd think.
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We're all about an open exchange of ideas at this university. I'm not defending anon above but what one of your friends decides to behead him for disagreeing with what you believe to be god. It works both ways it also protects you from people that would hurt you for being muslim.
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Does the fact that CT moved and buried Yolande's faux comment indicate CT Admin does not approve of her writing and profiting from the Mass Murder and her 10 sec of fame at the remembrance ceremony?
Let's not leave out she was a mentor/professor of Cho's and admitted confronted him, instead of being a professional and an adult, and assisting him in getting help.
And let's not forget her Thug life tattoo and her comment "Giovanni discusses her "Thug Life" tattoo, which she sports to honor slain rapper Tupac Shakur. "I'd rather be with the thugs than the people who are complaining about them, for sure," she explains."
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/flash/vd.asp?PID=12012&aud=1&{slinkprefix}&nav=1
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