[Seattle-editorial] creepy comments aimed at authors

[iamforher at riseup.net]

The letters below speak about the problem of mean
spirited comments in response to news posts.

I have seen a lot of this too.
It really is disturbing sometimes.
We all know the 'sticks and stones' rhyme but I
think names and words can hurt.

Sorry for not getting to my point right away.

I have an idea about how to democratically deal
with this sort of thing.

If every person who read an article had the
chance to vote to delete a comment, then a
comment could be automatically deleted if it
received 5 delete votes from different computers,
then it might be resolved in a way that respected
all parties and made for no more additional work
for editors.

This is probably not anything new, but I bet it
would be hard to create the program.

There is a forum that uses technology similar to
this called Majority Voice.

Maybe a tech at Majority Voice would have some
helpful advice?

http://www.majorityVoice.com

That's about all I can think of for now.

Thank you all so much for the work you are doing.

I hope to make it to the meeting sunday.
it is sunday right?
I'll check the email I saved with that info.
no need to respond.

See you all.

Peace, Love, and Pro-activity.

M








Kirsten Anderberg,
>
> I understand your concerns here.  They are
> extremely
> valid.  There is no question that the negative
> comments made about you online, in my mind at
> least,
> on our site, should be deleted.
>
> At the editorial meeting before last, 4 people
> showed
> up.  At the last editorial meeting, 3 people
> showed
> up.  I know of one tech person that is keeping
> the
> website going on the "backside" of the site.
> That
> means there's about 4 people who are even
> involved in
> the conversation about keeping the Seattle IMC
> website
> going.
>
> It's not like we have 3 people times 40 hours per
> week
> to deal with this situation.  It's more like 3
> times 3
> or four hours a week to deal with this.  It's
> largely
> a question of weather or not we even have the
> manpower
> to wage a successful battle against the trolls,
> even
> just a small one to protect your latest article.
>
>
> Let me ask you all, editorial team, what
> alternatives
> do we have for dealing with this level of abuse
> to our
> best writers?
>
>
>> It is creepy how most of my articles just
>> attract
>> personal slams on me,
>> about who I am, or am perceived to be, and so
>> rarely
>> is intelligent
>> comment made with respect to the subject of my
>> articles on your site. On
>> INfoshop, I get torn apart at times, but the
>> comments are predominantly
>> intelligent and cause for further discussion on
>> the
>> topic matter. The
>> discussion on infoshop re the rogue midwifery
>> was
>> brilliant yet the
>> comment on Seattle IMC is just stupid and mean.
>> Same
>> with the harassment
>> order one. Useless comments. Flaming. Mean
>> shit.
>> Condescending useless
>> shit. I loved how someone from the PDA tried to
>> cloud the issues on
>> comments re free speech at market issue,
>> calling me
>> "high drama" yet
>> avoiding the entire issue which is - WHERE IS
>> THE
>> FREE SPEECH SPOT?!
>>
>> I seem to be attracting alot of the same
>> character
>> bashing rather than
>> actual comments to the articles on Portland IMC
>> too.
>>
>> I am not sure what to make of that. Part of me
>> wants...

(.......)
(Thanks for the comments Kirsten)