Since Nola.com began allowing its users to post unmoderated comments on the official Web site of the Times-Picayune, the results have been a fine example of how unreasonable many of our fellow citizens can be. When given a venue to freely and anonymously express their stupidity along with the release of any judgment on the content of their character by their friends and family, people start spouting the most ludicrous shit.
Check it:
– On 05/31/07, a poster named “blueshead” advocated shooting liberals.
– On 06/03/07, user “bratman” used the phrase “thug monkies” to describe the criminal population in New Orleans and then called the city a “shithole.”
– “doglick,” on 06/03/07, praised quintuple murder suspect Michael Anderson for his killing of five teens in Central City last year and suggested he should have been given a medal.
– Then again on 06/03/07 user “Bratman” stated, “Everyone bleeding nis one less breeding!”
– On 06/10/07 user “dallanola” said New Orleans was worse than Haiti or Jamaica where visitors to the islands are killed on a regular basis.
– Posted by “pwrboatrace” on 06/14/07 was the wish that, “the levees break and flood (New Orleans) to the gills…”
– User “newworld58” on 06/15/07 came up with the mathematically equation that “More Blacks = More Crime.”
– This next one should have never been let through. It’s an insult pure and simple. On 06/15/07, posted by “KansasRules” after a story ran on the release of Michael Lewis from the Saints: “Tough luck, Beer Man! Maybe now you can teach that loser wife of yours how to coach, because she couldn’t coach ants at a picnic.”
– The next one was posted by “SwampThing02” on 06/21/07 who said New Orleans consisted of “no-doers!”
– Then someone tried to stick up the city for the city by posting, “YOUR ASS,,,,, SWAMPTHINGO2 EVERY ONE IN NEW ORLEANS, IS NOT LOOKIN FOR AN HAND OUT,,,,,IN ALL YOUR YEARS WHO HAS YOU OUT SMART?”
I’m not going to even debate weather the opinions expressed above are valid because, without someone stepping forward and being responsible for them, none of them are. None.
The racist posts are particularly troublesome though. Racism is kept in reasonable check in society due to the scorn visited upon hate groups like the KKK. People aren’t so quick to spout their rhetoric when they know they will be responsible for it. The bad judgment visited upon these people is part of the process. If they feel strongly enough about it, like the Klan, the judgment won’t matter. If the person values his or her social standing, it probably will. With these comments, social standing is meaningless. The people could be your neighbor or co-worker and you’d never know.
Remove that responsibility, like Craigslist and now Nola.com have done, and you suddenly have a group of weak-minded turkeys who are free of society’s judgment perpetrating their poorly thought opinions via an avenue provided to them by the local media and disguised as a more thorough news experience.
It’s not.
It’s skewed by anonymity. It’s not a fair representation. It encourages people to behave badly.
Your average geek-on-the-street probably deals with the racial issues our city faces on an hourly basis. It is popular opinion that extremes on both sides of the racial spectrum are just that, the extremes. Most people don’t judge everyone they meet solely on the color of their skin and certainly do not take it upon themselves to project their thoughts to anyone who will listen.
That must mean that those who do are the people who are passionately moved to do so. And many of those people are motivated by anger, prejudice and hate.
————————————
In the interest of fairness I should add that the comment system on this blog is moderated. All users must submit a comment and the first comment must be approved by me. After the first comment is approved, user comments appear instantly. Any racist comments are deleted and all posters can be easily identified and addressed if deemed necessary.
Blogged about this recently, too, and got zero responses. The Times Picayune should stick to the goal of better dead-tree journalism and leave the blogging to those know what it’s all about. As I said, “Newspapers and magazines should refrain from pseudo-blogging unless there exists a person, and not just a Spamalizer or Offensive Phrase Ejector, behind the electronic curtain dedicated to controlling the levers. In the absence of such care, this is not the way to compete with the changing face of media and reporting.”
Not that the TP even ejects crap from its comments section. Someone should bring this up with Jon Donley.
Remember, there’s an button to report offensive comments. I never hesistant to report overtly racist ones. Sadly, these loosers seem smart enough to skirt the edge of what would probably get removed.
But Mark, who knows how long the comments stay up before they get deleted? There could be some seriously offensive stuff floating around out there before it gets reported.
And Maitri you are right, its a poor attempt to keep up with bloggers instead of realizing that they have an enormous pool of resources and integrity at their disposal that would take some time for bloggers to catch up to.
It’s like when I used to watch WWF back in the day. They never, ever, discussed the rival federations on air because doing so would validate their very existence. The one day Ric Flair showed up on WWF TV with the NWA World Title and it was a whole new world.
Did I just use a wrestling analogy?
Also Maitri, this isn’t a competition so you don’t need to point out every time you covered something before me and note how much attention it did or didn’t receive. We’re all in this together. Keep up the good work. 😉
After having blogged for a year and a half, all I can say when I see the NOLA.com commenters is: get your own damn blogs and see how rude, crude, and socially unacceptable your comments get! Once one has an inkling of a community out there, the need to not piss that community off too much increases, otherwise you’re blogging to air.
(crickets chirping, wind rustling tree branches)
Hello? Anyone?
I didn’t intend to point this out as a competition. It’s just puzzling to me (and I have discussed this with other bloggers) that when I post something, I don’t get comments, but if someone else posts it, even weeks later, they get all kinds of discussion. Keep in mind that I’m not writing to or for myself, and that the object of the blog space is to elicit a constructive discussion, as opposed to the crap on nola.com, that I’d like to be a part of.
I didn’t get a swarm of posts about it the first time I posted about it either. I think two, albeit a good comment from Celcus. Perhaps folks are more apt to comment on something once they have witnessed it themselves. So it may have taken a little time for folks to realize how retarded the Nola.com comments are.
Yours was a well-thought out post that hit on a lot of different points, all valid. I would have certainly said something had I read it. But I did notice it was posted among a flurry of other posts and it may have slipped under people’s radars. I know if I have a post that I think is particularly important, I sandbag the next few posts to give the important one more time “above the fold” so to speak. If I’m just tossing out some links, I don’t usually give it a lot of time in the top spot.
Back when I was a journalist, we put the top story on the cover and slugged three other worthy stories and the listings and shit were up to the reader to find.
If it is any consolation, despite all the good I think I might have done on here, my most popular posts are still “fuck da Eagles” girl and my Photoshops of Bears fans. i get searches all the time for that passionate waif.
You’re right, Varg, it has to do with timing and presentation. I’ve always had a problem with timing (in every aspect of my life). If I get a free moment, probably 900 years from now, I’d restructure VatulBlog like ultrabrown.com, for example, to put the top stories in the main column and secondary ones in the sidebar, so I present everything important at that moment. *Gak. So tiring.*
Maitri,
Try not to worry so much about catching “everything important at that moment” and just deal with what you want to deal with when you want to deal with it.
I think too much Twitter has made you hyper-reactive. It’s important not to let the thousand little voices that buzz simultaneously on the internet get so far into your head that it interferes with your conscious train of thought.
Also… this is for both of you. Feedback and conversation are obviously part of what we’re looking for when we post something…. but just because something doesn’t spawn a million comments doesn’t mean it wasn’t read.
If I stopped to comment on every single thing I read and thought was worth noting in a day I’d never get out of this chair.
I watch the NOLA commentaries every day. I may not post, but I do report many of the worst comments as offensive. They do get pulled.
I understand the flagging. But when it sits out there on a Web page operated by the local newspaper it probably gives the appearence to some people that it is condoned by the paper. I know what they are trying to do. The local paper shouldn’t be trying ti emulate Craigslist rants & raves section.
My dumb. I didn’t realize anyone actually read the Nola.com forums. Ick.