Call me an old crankypuss, but I've never really been impressed with unmoderated discussions on the Web. Once you leave the doors wide open, you're almost immediately overrun by folks who gleefully pound out vicious bromides while hiding behind the anonymity allowed by the Web. One has only to read the comments on any YouTube clip to see how quickly this can bring down intelligent discussion.
Alas, that's how this crazy medium works, so you have to take the good with the bad. That is, unless you're CBS. The network, which boasts some of the most-watched clips on YouTube, is trying to police its comments by moving them to a different page, rather than directly below the videos themselves. The network is also trying to stay on top of profane, off-topic and unconstructive criticism. The network has been doing this since late October, and all I can say is, "Welcome to the user's Web, CBS."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-13-2006 @ 4:34PM
Tucker said...
What are you talking about, bringing down intelligent discussion? I've never seen discussions in the comments around here devolve into vicious, off-topic personal attacks! ¬_¬
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12-13-2006 @ 4:37PM
Adam said...
Shut up, jerk.
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12-13-2006 @ 4:46PM
David4 said...
So much for free speech.
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12-13-2006 @ 5:51PM
zenprime said...
Obviously someone at CBS said "YouTube! All the kids are there! Imagine if we could get a piece of that pie....*"
"Brillant! Have our people call their people! We'll make billions!"
Okay, maybe it didn't happen exactly like that, but CBS didn't do any real research. They should have broke a deal with YouTube creating a CBS+YouTube area that is functionally the same as YouTube but allowed them some control on the seething masses.
*In a nasally Vaudeville type voice.
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12-13-2006 @ 6:19PM
TomB said...
I'm all for free speech, but unmoderated discussions on the web can deteriorate quickly. Not that I necessarily trust CBS (or any other network for that matter) to moderate comments about their shows objectively, but comments run wild can be a really irritating experience if you're actually trying to have an intelligent discussion.
And Tucker, the comments on TV squad are moderated. I've seen comments disappear on more than one occasion. I'm not complaining. The comments I've seen go away needed to go away, usually because of bad language, etc.
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12-14-2006 @ 9:44AM
Tucker said...
Yeah, I'm well aware they're moderated, it's just sometimes I think the comments all over the blogs I frequent on this network get out of hand on a regular basis. And that's fine - it's nice to see that the crew(s) allow for a certain amount of chaos, but in most cases it just gets annoying (geeze, sometimes I dread poking through the comments over at Joystiq).
It's got to be frustrating to "make the call" on deleting posts. Now, I work in the web department of a big area newspaper, and I have to hear the other guys complain about moderating the comments on stories - talk about ridiculous. They're much more draconian, of course, deleting entire threads as soon as the devolve, banning users by IP, etc.
The way I see it, if it's way off-topic or offensive, yank it. CBS killing anything that they don't like is stupid - what, do they have someone whose full-time job is to moderate YouTube comments? Give me a break.
Around here, *I'd* go on a mad moderating spree for, say, the Lost posts, but that's a different story ;)
Oh, and just so you guys hear it first thing in the morning: revamping the comment system around the network might make things easier on you guys in general...
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