News24 to switch off comments on articles

How do you feel about News24 closing its article comments?

  • It is a good idea

    Votes: 78 59.1%

  • It is a bad idea

    Votes: 54 40.9%
  • Total voters
    132
Good idea. They should have done it long ago. I might actually go back there now. I was continually embarrassed by my fellow countrymen. At least in a forum like this one, the comments add to the understanding of the story.

Garson007 said:
A lot of. I enjoy reading the comments on articles, more than the articles themselves.
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Have you considered that the story gets lost completely in the drivel spewed in the comments?
 
But where will people point out the people weren't wearing seatbelts when there is a news story about a vehicle accident with all the occupants found all over the show except in the vehicle?
 
I think it saves them the effort of moderating comments 24/7, with thousands of fake/dupe Facebook profiles commenting,many times the same person
 
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Kayoss said:
They do need to change the system to eliminate the trolls, but not by removing comments entirely. Perhaps a reddit style system should be adopted.. Comments should be displayed by the number of points (upvote/downvote ratio), and not by time posted. That way, the comments that actually contribute something are listed at the top. Then, comments that score below a minimum threshold (upvote/downvote ratio) should be hidden. That should hide all the troll comments.
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+1. Upvote.
 
Agree that it will have to be closed.

News 24 is however also guilty of 'inflating' stories to make it sound 10x worse than it actually is. They then should not be surprised at the resulting barrage of negative comments.
 
About time. As one of my friends once put it, "the News24 comments section is where Yahoo Answers users go when they get banned for racism".
 
jannievanzyl said:
One of those difficult issues. Fully agree the comments are horrid but it also shines a light on the underlying issues that still haunt this country.

Turning off these comments effectively supports Zuma's 'Good News' policy.
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Spot on.

Also, how many and which international news sites have an absent comment section?

He said 24.com will “join international news leaders by implementing an important change in how we handle comments on our site”.
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No site should have comments at any time for any reason.
 
Wall said:
about time, the comment section on news24 is a horror show.
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techead said:
Agreed, it's a a racist troll fest
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cr@zydude said:
I don't like censorship, but the News24 comments are a dark pit of hatred. I didn't like them linking comments to facebook accounts, but thought that it may reduce the amount of bile that was spewed. It didn't work out that way.
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ToxicBunny said:
Surprised it took them this long..

The article explaining it was quite amusing to...

Should have just read
"We're turning off comments because most of you are racist and don't have 2 brain cells to rub together"
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wizardofid said:
About time......while some comments are entertaining, majority is just hate speech, racism and what not else.
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Thats why people come to MyBB to escape the bigotry and racism found on N24.

:rolleyes:
 
You'd think they would sort out their Wikipedia entry.

News24.com is an English-language South African online news publication created in October 1998 by the multinational media company, Naspers. Also known as South Africa’s largest digital publisher, News24 covers local and international news, politics, business, entertainment, technology, sport, and much more. The online edition is known to attract right wing Afrikaaners. It also tends to sensor pro-poor, pro-government, or pro-black opinions, including comments.
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The National Purple strikes again.
 
scud said:
bbc news
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There are many more, media websites with article sharing only, but is a standard where the there is one narrative. On MyBroadband which has both a comment and discussion (MyBroadband Forum) section, the discussion section allows a regulated debate. I think it is a great idea to host a public Forum, but there are other problems like the initial comments which can set the atmosphere, biased moderating, etc.
 
Do we really want to go back to one-sided only news delivery? News24 comments may be crude, but right or wrong it reflects the feelings of the people at the time.

Find a better solution (like disqus), don't just kill it 'cos it makes you uncomfortable, else Hlaudi might actually have a valid point.

"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced."

―Obi-Wan Kenobi, sensing the destruction of Alderaan
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