Saturday, May 25, 2013

What is bothering me today: The Miami Herald's reader comment policy. By Geniusofdespair

The reader comment policy at the Miami Herald was a free for all for many years. There were really some inappropriate comments posted because there was NO moderation (although I got a scarlet letter for writing "shit") of the anonymous comments. Every racist, ethnic slur was fair game, but not "shit" even though I wrote it thusly: s--t. My comment was removed.

Anyway, to get to the point, now in order to comment you have to be a member of Facebook.  The Miami Herald went from getting a few hundred comments on some stories to 6 or 7.  I refuse to comment with Facebook. It is a matter of principle. Why should I have to be a member of anything that isn't part of the Miami Herald to comment?  I shouldn't have to be part of an exclusive online club: Facebook.  The Herald should have just required an email address and that would have eliminated all the looney comments. They didn't have to resort to anything as harsh as a Facebook account. Why should the Herald only reward readers that are happy to waste their time on Facebook?

On second thought, I do have stock in Facebook and I am waiting for it to go back up, so I guess it isn't really all that bad of a policy at the Miami Herald....that is, until I sell my stock.

As Emily Litella would have said: "Never mind."

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

There was a chilling 60 Minutes piece recently on the use of facial recognition software by corporations to target individuals for marketing campaigns. Facebook was prominently featured. One software engineer described the process of extracting a social security number from a face posted on the internet. The Miami Herald must be interested in keeping up with marketing advantages through Facebook, too. Let's say you write a comment and post it through your Facebook account. The Miami Herald will not just know who you are, but the paper will also have whatever history and consumer preferences are available through database searches. Privacy is an illusion. A myth. Let's see the Tea Party and Marco Rubio take that one, on.

NIGERIAN BUSINESSMAN said...

I'm coming up with A New Social Media Concept called BUTTBOOK where you your profile is a pic of your BUTT and the BUTTS of those your family and amigos.
See if BIG BIZ OR BIG BRO can come up with BUTT Recognition software
Interested Investors please Call 1-800 ASS-HOLE
Thanks
NIGERIAN BUSINESSMAN

100panthers said...

In the late 1980s-early 1990s Miami Herald was one of the best papers in the country, regularly winning Pulitzer Prizes. Now the Tampa Bay Times eats their lunch and the only reason to order the Herald is to line your kitty litter box.

100panthers said...

NIGERIAN BUSINESSMAN...LOL. Well Done.

Herald will require the butt prints to post if they can make money out of it in the short run, since the long run no longer exists to them.

Alicia said...

No more money for Herald investigations. But plenty of money for a full-time gay blogger. Go figure.

Anonymous said...

First of all removing the freedom to post anonymously is principally un-American. Second I predict Facebook stock to rise on hype and then take a huge dump, it will become just like Yahoo.

Anonymous said...

Facebook integration = marketing information = marketing dollars

We worry about Big Brother government but we need to be equally worried about Big Brother business.

Guaranteed the policy change had nothing to do with removing racist or other offensive comments but a marketing decision for more data.

Anonymous said...

Everyone complains that the Miami Herald (Doral Herald?) has gone downhill. Readers are lucky to get 2-3 well written stories a month. Linking comments to Facebook is another another bad management decision.

Anonymous said...

Hard to judge viewer interest when nobody posts comments. I learned more from the comments then the articles. Especially on tourist and real estate articles which are usually one sided press releases.

KG_Dreamer said...

Homestead is Home just launched a Facebook page. I agree with you argument but Facebook is the way many visitors want to contribute their comments.

Geniusofdespair said...

Talk about politics everyday and people take you off their page. Facebook is fun only with an occasional reference to reality, no one wants a heavy dose of it.