[1.Local]: Making your comments matter
by Lisa Poisso 
Mar 21st 2010 at 2:00PM
VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED; language Not Safe For Work.
Reader comments -- ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week.
Internet comments and commenters -- gah. What does it take to get a comment spotlighted on [1.Local], anyway? Many readers assume that the comments we select each week represent the most popular posts, or the most controversial, or the most "important." That's true ... Sometimes. Humor is frequently the common denominator; after all, everybody loves a good laugh over the game we all enjoy. Beyond that, the factors that make a comment [1.Local]-worthy are more of a moving target. Maybe that comment is the seed of an intricate debate. Perhaps it's an inspired strategy worth sharing. Maybe it's simply a pointer towards a story we think more readers ought to see. There's no set formula.
What is set, however, is our commitment to providing a place for our readers' voices to be heard. That doesn't mean we're throwing open the editorial doors to some sort of hegemony via comments. What it does mean is that we love a vibrant, energetic community of commenters just as much as you do. Blog comments do matter. How can you make your own viewpoints make an impact? Join us after the break for a refresher course on best practices for commenting on the internet.
Respect other readers and other points of view. This is probably the most important rule of the road in any online community. It's certainly the point that separates the sheep from the wolves and the boys from the men. If you can't engage other readers and other viewpoints with respect and maturity, you won't get very far making your point or adding to the conversation.
Read the post completely. If you find yourself typing, "I couldn't even read past the second paragraph, when he said ...", you've obviously missed at least half the the point. Please stop. Go back. Finish reading.
Don't get caught making one of the Top 5 Most Pointless Comments.
- First!
- Slow news day? (or, How's this news?)
- Learn2 <whatever>.
- <Blahblahblah long-winded opinion blahblah stated as fact blahblahblah>, period.
- <Blogger> doesn't know what he/she is talking about and should be replaced.
Comments are not votes. Comments do not affect WoW.com's editorial decisions or Blizzard's game design. If the comments appear to be headed towards a "Me, too -- let's overwhelm 'em with public opinion, boys!" lynching, expect the banhammer to be making an appearance soon.
Learn how to disagree well. Don't fall prey to the most common pitfalls of internet commenting: name-calling, ad hominem attacks, responding to another's tone, contradiction, counterargument, refutation ... Click the link; it'll clear up a lot.
Quote/cite the point of your reply. The commenting system here at WoW.com can be confusing and somewhat ... quirky. (Feeding it the blood of our newest crop of bloggers seems to help, but we haven't ruled out additional sacrifices of chickens just yet.) What's more, readers rarely read every single comment and reply before jumping into the conversation. If you're responding to a previous comment, quote a snippet (shorter is better) relevant to your counterpoint before launching into your reply.
Upvote/downvote comments to indicate merit rather than agreement. WoW.com's system of uprating (starring) and downrating (darkening out) comments is most effective when it's used not to agree or disagree with an opinion but to shed light on the merit or flaws of a particular comment's style or content. It's more effective to upvote comments that add value to the conversation (whether you agree with them or not) and to downvote comments that are off-topic, insulting or otherwise ineffective contributions.
Pick the right time and place to disagree. If you take editorial issue with something that's been written at WoW.com, the appropriate avenue is an e-mail to an editor, not a diatribe in the comments. Editors' e-mail addresses are linked after their names in the list of writers on the right side of the home page; just click on the editor's name to see more details and a link to their e-mail. And if you have an issue with another reader? Best to try to find some way to contact them directly off the site or stop participating in that particular thread of comments.
Don't take our word for it -- hear what others are saying about making your voice heard in a positive way.
- Lifehacker's guide to weblog comments
- 8 most obnoxious internet commenters
- How to comment like a king or queen
- Author's field guide to internet trolls
Ha, caughtcha looking! Hey, don't scroll away ... Come join the conversation on these and other posts around the WoW.com community. We'll see you around in [1.Local]!Filed under: [1.Local]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Kaylin Mar 21st 2010 2:07PM
NO U!
Viator Mar 21st 2010 2:17PM
I disagree
caelwynn Mar 21st 2010 2:29PM
While I appreciate the irony of responding to an article about commenting guideines with such a flippant dismissal to the heart of the argument, I wanted to respond to your non-sequitur with a question. What would you like me to do? Your request is rather ambiguous. ^^
(Also, I wanted to remark that I am very happy to see that this is a community that encourages maturity and mutual gain. Great job guys!)
Task Mar 21st 2010 3:01PM
Circle gets the Square
daan.leijen Mar 21st 2010 2:20PM
Noes! My precious [1.local]! Where hast thou gone?
Qot Mar 21st 2010 3:47PM
Slow post day?
Tremelizzer Mar 21st 2010 2:31PM
Simpsons did it!
pyratus Mar 21st 2010 3:15PM
South Park did it too!
Falcon6 Mar 21st 2010 2:32PM
V2QZF5
If you want to comment in here, read this.
Dave Mar 21st 2010 2:35PM
I hope you're giving a style guide this thorough to the new bloggers as well.
Half the problem is that there have been a bunch of just plain awful articles lately. It's barely worth reading most of them, and that sure isn't the fault of the commenters.
I mean if you just want to call out your revenue sources for being jerks, that's cool but it's ultimately a destructive path. Get better writers, don't post terrible articles just because they're submitted. You might find a lot of less negative comments if that happened.
Henry Mar 21st 2010 3:03PM
Such as...
BubblePriest Mar 21st 2010 3:24PM
You know people complain about Ghostcrawler being harsh on the forums when the people on the forums are his main source of revenue. However, like Ghostcrawler, WoW.com probably realizes the trolls aren't their main source of revenue and simply don't care if they manage to drive some of them off.
The bulk of the readers of WoW.com probably have never been so much as tempted to read the comments, much less comment in them. If the articles were as bad as you claimed, they'd simply stop coming back to the site.
Oddly enough, there's always people like you on the blogs I read (not just WoW.com or WoW related blogs) complaining about the quality of the writing, talking about how things used to be better. I can never understand why if they're so miserable reading the blog they don't move on to find better quality writing. The local library has some classics if the blogosphere fails to provide. Alas, they keep coming back for more.
Mattias Mar 21st 2010 3:26PM
Most of the poorly (if at all) fact-checked stuff put forth by Frostheim and Dawn Moore?
Adam Holisky Mar 21st 2010 4:36PM
The commenters on this site, and on the official forums, do not represent anything beyond a percent of a percent of total readership. It's just a fact, there's really no argument to be had. You all are important in the community, but numbers-wise people who comment here (and on the official forums) are very very very small in comparison to everyone.
And Devv, at best, your numbers are significantly off by a large magnitude. Please don't try to represent numbers that you don't know.
Dave Mar 21st 2010 4:43PM
Yes, so if comments aren't a major source of revenue and don't represent a large amount of the traffic, the best way to reward those who contribute, even in a way you may disagree with, is to talk down to them and make sure that they feel no need to further contribute, yes?
If you don't want negative comments, just turn off comments. Clearly they're not a major source of concern or revenue so why not?
I largely stopped commenting quite a while ago when all I ever saw in response to what I assumed were legitimate concerns or viewpoints, were flippant responses that conveyed nothing more than an 'I'm the blogger, you're the commenter therefore you are wrong' response. That's not a two-way communication deserving of respect.
So if you're going to lambast the few people who do decide to comment, it'd be nice if you'd do the same for the authors.
Dave Mar 21st 2010 4:49PM
Even further, it'd be nice to see who exactly IS downvoting the comments.
It would be wonderful to have some transparency so that people know that it's not just a handful of people who work for the blog who do it immediately so that people disregard comments they don't appreciate. I assume that the commenting system will fully bury a comment after only a small number of negative votes, it'd be nice to know for sure that it's not a sock puppet procedure. Especially when it happens so rapidly.
Tokkar Mar 21st 2010 4:54PM
Okay, Dave, fair enough.
I'm down-voting your comment.
Adam Holisky Mar 21st 2010 4:57PM
We're not interested in turning off comments on the site, although the option has been discussed.
We're also not interested, as authors, in shooting down anyone who disagrees with us -- but I do encourage the staff to respond respectfully to people when they bring up legitimate concerns (and "get rid of author X" is not a legitimate concern, it's nothing more than trolling).
There also is no need for tin-foil hats. We don't go around and downrate comments, and there's absolutely no way for myself or others to downvote a comment automatically. It takes a certain number of people for a comment to become grayed out (i don't even know what this number is), but I can tell you it's not being done by the authors.
Commenters are an important part of the community, but just like everything there has to be some ground rules; which is the point of this article and subsequent participation.
Henry Mar 21st 2010 5:18PM
@Mattias
Which articles? What about them? What evidence do you have that they are wrong?
If you want to convince me of something, you have to present the information to me, because I'm not going to do the legwork to find out what was wrong and why and what proof you have that they are wrong.
The burden of proof falls upon those who are make the claim.
Agony Mar 21st 2010 7:56PM
Yep...the people who downrate you for being a douche are all just "mindless fanboi sheep".
/facepalm