Innovations in comment moderation

Last month I wrote about some of the ways to make comment moderation more nuanced than a simple publish / don’t publish decision, such as the way in which LabourList tags some comments as trash – and it is then up to the site visitor to decide whether or not to read such comments.

I also highlighted the perils of the Daily Mail‘s approach – letting people vote comments up/down – because that often simply produces a herd mentality that reflects the opinions of the readers rather than the merits of the comments.

Extending the range of example approaches, that of the Wall Street Journal has caught my eye:

The Wall Street Journal limits comments to subscribers or those registered to leave a comment. The WSJ also enforces a real-name policy, which Murray contends “has a wonderfully beneficial effect on the quality of our comments.” There is a screen that allows users to limit comments to only those from subscribers. [Source: Edelman.com]

The New York Times on the other hand has taken an approach similar to that of traditional letters page editors:

At the NY Times, an editor or web producer “looks for a variety of viewpoints on a topic.” [Edelman.com]

Now though it is going further:

The New York Times has debuted a new visual commenting tool. It’s debut is being used to help people discuss and explore some of the issues regarding the healthcare (some might argue the health insurance) debate in the US. The boxes all relate to an issue in the debate, and a drop-down menu allows you to jump to that topic and see a brief overview of the issue. The relative size of the boxes reflect the number of comments, and hovering over the people icons at the bottom of the boxes allow you to quickly see a bit of the comment. You can also also easily jump to replies to comments that you have left. It appears that the topics aren’t generated organically by the discussion but are created by the New York Times editorial staff. In some ways, it’s a slightly advanced, and somewhat stilted form of threading. It’s almost more of a discussion system than it is strictly a commenting system.