The greatest comment ever!

That might be an overstatement, but the comment in The New York Times is odd and funny. It was posted in 2015 in response to a recipe (a recipe!) for Katharine Hepburn's brownies.

"This has been my go-to brownie recipe for 30 years. In the '80s, an acquaintance in Germany to whom I brought some of the brownies, and who considered herself a great cook, asked for the recipe but was never able to get it to work. She kept asking me what she was doing wrong and I was never able to solve her problem. Eventually, she moved to the U.S. and stole my husband!"

In September The Cut tracked down the author, Sydne Newberry, and got the full story behind the comment. Newser also talks about it on a post here.

The Times moderators made the ruling as "greatest ever," not to be confused with the most popular comment posted, which got 7,000 recommendations in 2010. The comment to a Paul Krugman column was still tops five years later, according to a Times article from November 2015. 

(Here is the link to the Times article in July 2017 about the moderators at the paper and their choices of top comment.)

Perspective software for comment moderation

A short article in Popular Science magazine highlights comment software designed by Jigsaw, a Google company. The software assesses comments by toxicity for more efficient moderation. The New York Times is using the software, which is called Perspective.

Popular Science, of course, cut off reader comments in 2013 in response to fears that reader comments could influence public perceptions about science.

I trolled around the Popular Science site (get it?) and it looks like still no comments in 2017.

The Washington Post updates its comments policy

More options available and comment moderation software.

"Super-commenters" in The New York Times

The New York Times ran a short piece last week on its "super-commenters" - that group of commenters who post high quality comments and post frequently.

These are not just high-volume posters, but those people who are getting tagged by the Times or by readers as making quality comments. Bassey Etim, the community desk editor at the Times, is quoted as saying they number about 200 commenters. Times managers describe them as driven, competitive and professional. They also tend to be older and, not surprisingly, have schedules that give them the flexibility to comment. Commenting well and frequently takes time.

"I’m Icing My Knee and I’m Hard Boiling Some Eggs"

The New York Times published a hilarious comment from one of its regular commenters who was using autospeak.

Gamergate piece in the Washington Post

This is a very discouraging and frightening piece from the Washington Post about online harassment surrounding Gamergate, which has been written about at great length. The newest development is that one set of criminal charges have been dropped. I am struck by two things in the comments.

First, there remains an argument over verifiable facts in the case, often with commenters citing their own sources. There is no agreement over the facts, let alone what should be done.

Second, while this is a topic that is ostensibly non-political, it has become one in the comments. Expressing your sympathies for one side or the other

"Internet Warriors" article is a portrait of online trolls

The New York Times has posted an interesting article about that small cadre of people who post online with amazing frequency. This includes Tweets, posts to social media like Facebook and comments posted in response to news articles (my particular interest).

Amazing might not be strong enough. One 22-year-old college student has posted 175,000 Tweets, according to the article. (Let's imagine she has been at it for five years, so that's 35,000 Tweets a year, or 96 a day, every day. Good grief!)

Just a plug for a thoughtful article ...

... on news outlets working on the problem of incivility in comments. iMediaEthics does a good job in following the issue.

My new article on perceptions of online comments

Just a shameless plug: 

The dark side of Guardian comments

"The dark side of Guardian comments" is a report from the Guardian newspaper on its comments sections, and it is really must reading for anyone interested in this stuff.

Some of the main findings are not surprising. Only about 2% of comments are deemed abusive and blocked by the Guardian, which moderates its comment sections. Men post more than women, and women writers and commenters suffer more abuse. The report really tries to humanize the effect online abuse has on the Guardian writers.

Vice.com has dropped comments

Vice.com has elected to close its comments sections and push commenters to social media. Here is some commentary on the decision. (I remain reluctant to call this a trend.)