Moderation Solves Trolling Issues on News Sites

Due to continuing issues with spammers, trolls, and others intent on disrupting online interaction, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Week, and, most recently, NPR have removed the ability for users of their websites to post comments. Last week, the Suffolk Times, citing an article which described a group of comment area trolls who impersonated another user for months, printed an editorial about the trend.

In it, they quoted Ben Frumin, editor-in-chief of The Week: “If I was painting a picture of a site we were gonna have,” he said, “and then at the end I said, ‘Oh, by the way, at the bottom of all our articles we’re going to prominently let any pseudonymous avatar do and say whatever they want with no moderation’ …you would think that was a crazy idea.”

The Suffolk Times editorial concluded with a statement that editors were also discussing turning off article comments on their website, leaving users to post responses on social media sites such as Facebook, “…where the taxing responsibility of comment moderation doesn’t fall solely on a newsroom staff that could better serve readers by reporting the news.”

And that is the crux of the matter. Newsroom staff should serve readers by reporting the news, and as Frumin says, there should be no sites where users can say what they want with no moderation. Moderation is the obvious solution to both issues, as well as the impersonation one. It is cost-effective, reduces risk, protects your precious brand image, and insures that comments will be on-topic and civil.

Mzinga moderators currently provide world-class services to several high-traffic news sites. Why not talk to us about how moderation can help you as well? Don’t stop the conversations: enhance them. If you tell your users to stop commenting on your articles, they will also stop reading them.

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