New York Times commenters

The New York Times ran this piece Nov. 23, 2015, about its most prolific online commenters. This is another example of online comments being taken seriously and shown in a positive light. This view of people who post comments is a contrast to the image of angry diatribes from social discontents. (We have enough of that, I know.)

Here is the introduction to the piece:

In recent years, a core group of commenters have helped to transform The New York Times for the digital era. Their voices have enhanced our journalism, offering new information, insight and analysis on many of the day’s most pressing issues.

These frequent commenters have also become a community, one that has its own luminaries.

But who are they? We decided to take a look at some of the most popular commenters on The Times site, which receives around 9,000 online comments a day.

Here are some of these stars, based on a statistical analysis of how often their comments have been recommended, as well as the judgment of Times comment moderators. 

As of Dec. 2 the article had attracted 1,402 comments. :)

Changing views of online comments

There has been a fair amount of coverage of online publications ending their reader comments sections. Most notably, Popular Science closed reader comments in 2013 for fear that reader comments could influence public perceptions about science. (I will start a list, just to keep track.)

But I am also seeing a fair number of stories about positive aspects of online comments.  The reader representative for the San Diego Union-Tribune wrote recently about some of the benefits of online comments. In particular, he talks about online comments as a means to correct early versions of breaking news posted online.