Steve Outing, editor of this group blog, has been asking me to write something about article comments, what we in Israel call "Talkbacks," and now seemed to be a good time. You'll see why in a moment.
"Talkbacks" are an absolute necessity in Israel, a small country with a lot of people online and even more people with opinions. My former employer,
Ynet (Hebrew), claimed to be one of the Web pioneers of talkbacks. True or not, articles on Ynet routinely receive more than 100-200 comments, with 300+ not uncommon -- and often within minutes. Israelis, shall we say, "get it" and quickly.
When I started
Ynetnews for Ynet in English, we, of course, made a point of building talkbacks into the mix. Following the freewheeling Israeli approach, we decided to put few limits on what we would permit. We decided to forbid only what is called "incitement" to Israel. Like porn, incitement is difficult to define, but we hoped we would know it when we saw it.
Because we covered the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, our talkbacks ran "harif" (Hebrew for hot and spicy) from Day One. We spent a fair amount of calories vetting them, and trimming out quite a few, but decided it was worth the effort. Talkbacks bred more talkbacks, which bred more pageviews, and articles sent by e-mail, and viral marketing by the talkbackers. Our English-language competition, which had lagged behind the Hebrew sites in permitting talkbacks, quickly got into the game.
Last week, the liberal policy I fostered came up to bite me on the nose.
My column about the clashes between Jewish settlers and security forces at the demolition of illegal structures in an unauthorized community drew several dozen talkbacks. One of them criticized me so roundly that he offered me up as a hostage or candidate for a jihadist beheading. I complained to the current editor, and suggested it had gone too far and should be excised. He said the limit was pretty much at open incitement to violence. I thought the commentator came awful close, and they took the item off -- but only at my request.
OK, so where does that put the issue for North American mainstream media, few of whom have article talkbacks? I think they are still worth the effort and the occasional controversy. Talkbacks seem to me to be quintessentially Internet-ty. They break down the barriers between the media in their ivory towers and the people who actually read the stuff they produce. Are some of them stupid? Yes. Are some of them offensive? Yes. Are some even libelous and inciteful of violence? Yes. So take them down.
People need to vent and want to vent. If they can't do it on an MSM site, they'll go to a "competitor" in the blogosphere, where they are likely to get a chance to have their point of view aired. That's one less reader for the MSM publication/website.
