Vice.com announced yesterday that it will join the growing number of websites (NPR.com, Reuters, Popular Science) that are disabling their comments sections altogether. I don’t have much to add to what I said in August when NPR saw the light, which basically amounts to this:
…the culture of unrestrained bigotry, hate speech, harassment, and sub-mental diarrhea graffiti that has characterized comment threads since the day they were born has succeeded in eating itself. Trolls have driven humans away, and more and more publishers are beginning to side with the writers whose work is routinely defamed and diminished by a tiny fraction of the people who read it.
Although, I suppose I might add that I’m increasingly certain anonymous comment threads were the petri dish in which the anything-but-silent minority of internet trolls who just elected the worst bastard in America to be the most powerful bastard in America could not have festered and fermented into a movement. Which is only one more reason—though there were plenty on hand already—to do away with them altogether. It may be too late, but there’s a small chance the republic will survive the next four years, so we may as well pretend there’s a future.
I’m not sure how I feel about this. As for diminishing writing… Often it seems writers themselves are dashing off quick pieces in response to blips in the news, like who said something wrong on twitter, and readers use that as a prompt to respond themselves. Usually since both sides are just giving their quick impression, the writer is no more insightful than the readers. Sometimes with longer pieces there are nagging questions or the headline is trying to be provocative to get clicks and we should be able to interact to express our frustration. If the writer has contradicted themselves, we can point to an earlier piece. There are many ways that it can inform the reader, writer and the editor.
On the other hand, if a section is about lgbt stuff or a hate crime or a protest, I know exactly the comments I’m going to read and have to force myself to remember not to scroll down too far.