Do you think comments below articles are valuable?

[Will_rkr]

Yes, though not always constructive but without them we don't get a chance to see anothers person's point of view.

 

[Ritha blikkies]

Surprisingly the govt still has not said how sigarettes causes the virus. I'm not a smoker but a smokers wife.

 

[Red Plumstead]

I believe in the comments. Even it might not have comments that you agree to, it gives sometimes a different viewpoint and a good discussion. It might also change your stance on a subject. As I always believe there is my view, your view and then the truth.

 

[Katri]

Eyewitness News has announced that it will close its comments section (more here).

Do you think comment sections add value? If so, why do you think big publishers are closing their comment sections?

Good to get public input.

 

[v3gout]

Yes, if used responsibly!

 

[Keith Gild]

There are some very interesting remarks and some made by bored, rude and ignorant people who have nothing sensible to say. They should learn to Zip!

 

[BeerIsNotGood...]

I am only reading the article to then read the comments,

So pretty much like YouTube
First the veg then the meat

 

[BeerIsNotGood...]

One more point to consider - what value does comments hold for a publication? The negatives are clear (more than what I mentioned above). What are the positives?

BTW – It is a fallacy that comments drive traffic.

Talk about Corp speak

Still love the site though...

Could be better

 

[Ammaraj]

They do sometimes add value as there are some good points addressed and then there are the time wasters and opportunists who want to use the platform to moan and complain or even discuss off topic issues.So they should rather look into creating a system that will block out off topic comments and allow for fruitful comments to reflect to the public.They can use the off topic comments for research and development areas separately .

 

[access]

BTW – It is a fallacy that comments drive traffic.

dont know about driving, but there was a drop in traffic when news24 closed it comments.

https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/101165

pretty sure there were articles about it as well. i for example hardly go there anymore, unless its linked somewhere else, but i dont deliberately go there to read news anymore.

 

[RedViking]

The same question was asked when News24 removed their comment section. People said they will not use News24 again.


Ever.

Never ever.

 

[LilPunk]

Eyewitness News has announced that it will close its comments section (more here).

Do you think comment sections add value? If so, why do you think big publishers are closing their comment sections?

They are valuable, but also depends on the type of article. Example in most 'solution to a problem' articles comments are mostly valuable or just a lot of thank you notes. Most publishers close their comment sections because of trolls mostly.

 

[Shard]

MyBB news section has basically become like China, if the writer doesn't like your comment because it points to flaws in their argument, they just remove it.