The Comments Problem

[birguslatro]

Much angst is expressed about comments on the internet, and I've figured out what the problem is. They can be said in an instant and usually are, so they're mostly the first thing that's popped into someone's head.

Think how much better it'd be if they couldn't comment until 24 hours after they'd seen the article or post? That pithy comment they first thought of probably wouldn't be said, either because they realised it's naff, or they've thought of something more profound to say. And after 24 hours of thinking consciously or unconsciously about it, they probably do have something much better to say.

So there you have it - one small step towards fixing the internet. Just add a 24 hour wait before people can comment.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I'll tell you what I think of that tomorrow... ;)

Seriously, though, the beauty of comments sections in my opinion is their 'live' nature. Never before have total strangers been able to get together and discuss something the instant it happens. This immediacy is what makes Twitter so great, and I think that off-the-cuff comments can enhance the discussion rather than diminish it.

MSR

[birguslatro]

And now that tomorrow's come? :)

I've been doing this for nearly 20 years now and so I know the benefits of immediacy. It's the lack of more thoughtful responses I'm thinking of.

And twitter is sort of a case in point, it's message size being restricted to text-message size.

Text messages were never expected to get popular, but people prefer them to the immediacy of having to answer the bloody phone right at this minute. More long-form posts or articles deserve more pondering before they're commented on.

[andrewducker]

The first six-months I was on Usenet I didn't have the ability to send messages. By the time I was able to, I'd picked up a lot of etiquette.

[birguslatro]

But if you'd pondered longer about what I'd posted, do you think you might've realised I was writing more about the content of comments than their etiquette?

Before I started on LJ, I'd been on a message-board where it was common for discussions to last for days or weeks. I noticed there, as did others, that the better comments were from those who'd given themselves time to think about the topic. With LJ though, comments were usually all over in a day, which I found odd.

I just think it'd be interesting and useful for a service to force people to think about the subject for a while before commenting on it.

[andrewducker]

The content of the communication is based heavily on the etiquette. Some places want a quick pithy answer, some places want a deeply thought out answer that adds something important to the conversation. I considered this when I made my reply. So pondering longer wouldn't have helped there. For me, anyway. Do you think that pondering longer might have allowed you to realise that?

Message boards are very different to LJ. They show, for instance, threads in the order of their last comment, which means that you're alerted to where the discussons are happening. Whereas you have no way of knowing that a post from a week ago on LJ still have an active discussion going on.

[birguslatro]

"some places want a deeply thought out answer that adds something important to the conversation."

Precisely. But instead they get lots of pithy answers from those who've nothing really to say but are still compelled to say something. And no amount of etiquette will prevent what they say being the first thing that popped into their head.