Comments on: Make like a Tree and Don’t Leave Comments

By: Vesendasy

Vesendasy — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:57:50 +0000

????? ?????????? ??? ????! ?????????? ?? rss. ???? ????????? ??????.

By: Jack Robert

Jack Robert — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 22:37:47 +0000

That was a great blog. Most blogs are not even worth reading.

By: INSULINFUNK » Blog Archive » Make Like a Tree and Don’t Leave Comments: An Update

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:53:26 +0000

[...] Most Forgotten Game Of 2008? Make like a Tree and Don’t Leave Comments MC Herbal-T Vs. Soulja [...]

By: Jarret

Jarret — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 05:01:38 +0000

First!

By: Joey Schulte

Joey Schulte — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 07:51:29 +0000

I say if you’re worried about certain kinds of posts, make guidelines and punish those who do not follow those guidelines (but I would be against this course of action too). Delete spam. I for one am against most rules and regulations regarding free speech in any public forum. I think many posts are disrespectful, but I don’t think they should be censored. Censorship in my field of study (library sciences) is a huge issue, and I think if we don’t censor public libraries for adults there is no reason for anyone to censor a blog or forum.

By: Matt M

Matt M — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:33:03 +0000

Also, forgot to mention that the user revolt at Digg seems relevant here — some time ago a story made it to the Digg front page that revealed the numeric string needed to break Blu-Ray encryption. Digg got a takedown notice from the industry and their users went batsh*t crazy, flooding the site with stories containing the prohibited string until they relented. It sounds like Engadget is in a similar situation; they have called more attention to themselves by overreacting.

By: Alain Kabbara

Alain Kabbara — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:26:25 +0000

I just read all the comments on the Engadget post on the BB Storm. It’s biased and apparently it isn’t the first one against BB Storm, and the comments were calling the website out on it. None of it seemed all that vulgar or insulting, aka not like youtube. I see no reason that those kind of posts should be restricted, or threatened to be shutdown completely. There was one poster that was really just trolling there (uzikrotch, he only made 2 comments in that post only, that was hard to spot), the rest, to me, came off more as Engadget not wanting to be criticized for being biased and less of it being vulgar and inapropriate. Snip that one troll and move on Engadget, people are going to be critical of your posts.

By: Marie Barnes

Marie Barnes — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:21:47 +0000

My reply to this is yes, I think you all have good points and I find it hard to disagree with any of them. However, in this particular instance, the comments were turned off because people were criticizing the stance that Engadget took. And it was a lot of people. Engadget could learn from it or at least recognize the difference of opinion, methinks, rather than say that anyone who disagrees doesn’t have a say.

By: Matt M

Matt M — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:52:41 +0000

The websites where I enjoy reading comments (Metafilter is probably the best) do moderate, but their moderation policy is liberal, clear and well-enforced. In the world of unmoderated comments, you end up with Youtube and spam. On the over-moderated side, I’d say BoingBoing goes too far in stifling criticism of its writers and in being capricious in how it applies its rules. BoingBoing’s sister site IO9 was (at least at launch) requiring people to apply to be a commenter with writing samples to apparently determine if they were good enough, which I find revolting and counter to the democratic spirit of the internet.

To the point of your article though, Engadget is a hugely successful website that makes a ton of money and they can easily afford the manpower and technology required to moderate their comments. This ‘play nice or we’ll shut it off’ just comes across as petulant and naive. It reminds me of the kid in school who would warn you about how mad they’ll get if you touch their lunchbox.

By: Scott Reeser

Scott Reeser — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:57:05 +0000

It’s nice to see some of my thoughts already added to the comments. Each site will gain/lose readership based on their choices; they can do what they want.

However, I don’t think the majority of Joystiq readers go there because it has an active commenting community. It’s an assumption, but I’m guessing many people like myself go to a certain news site to read the news from those select writers or because it’s the best damn organized gaming news site there is. The only reason I comment here is because I feel like I know the people involved and it’s still fairly close-knit/small.