Why You Shouldn't Disable Comments with Andrew Losowski

Have you tried building an online community and failed? Do you ever wish that you could improve the level of discussion, civility, and value generated in your comments sections?There's a smart way to go about building an online community to engage, understand and please your audience.I recently interviewed Andrew Losowsky on the Digital Media Growth Podcast, and we discussed how to do this and much more.
Andrew is a writer, editor and storyteller based in New York City. He currently runs the Coral Project at Vox.The Coral Project is open source, made by and for publishers. Their mission is to develop tools and strategies to help bring publishers and their communities closer together and create a more healthy online dialogue.The project was created as a collaboration between Mozilla, the New York Times and the Washington Post with support from the Knight Foundation.
âFrom the beginning our goal was to figure out how to bring journalists and communities closer together, what is the place for comments in that, how should we think about engagement and communitiesâŠâŠ The overall question we kept coming back to - are the comments just a bad job we should destroy or is there hope in this space yet?â
In this article youâll learn the specific mindsets and steps required to start building a supportive and healthy community around your work.Letâs start with some context: what went wrong with comments sections?In their early days, the idea of online comments sections was greeted with much optimism.Many felt that they would become a digital version of âletters to the editorâ - and allow a healthy two way communication between author and audience.In recent years though, comments sections have become notorious for trolls, spam and hateful content. If that's one of the reasons you disabled comments, you should read our guide on stopping comment spam on your WordPress site.Andrew himself wrote that the comments sections had moved in peopleâs minds from being an empty box on a website to a âviper-filled pit of hellâ.Why did this happen?Andrew suggested that the problem is societal, strategic and technological.
âThis is not a new problem. To think that it is, is to not know our internet historyâ
As a project, Coralâs starting point was to dive deep into the 30 years of online community history - trying to get insights from what went wrong in the past to show the was forward in the present.Internet comments as we now know them were developed in 1998 by Bruce Ableson.He built the system for his blog, hoping to develop a conversation between him and his audience.
âFrom the very beginning there has been sexism, racism, abuse, spam harassment and trolling on the internet. Weâve seen this in the history of Usenet, The Well⊠other internet spacesâŠ.. A lot of the problems we see today existed then. It just didnât exist on the kind of scale we see today - and crucially the technology then wasnât built in a way to amplify and grow at all costs, therefore making it easier for this system to be gamed and rewardedâ
The problems of bullying, harassment, ignorance and bigotry are obviously not created by the internet - they are societal problems.
âEven if we could fix it on the internet tomorrow by clicking our fingers Thanos style - it wouldnât remove it from society. The internet is a real other place in many ways, so this is a social and cultural problem on one sideâ
Now we get to the strategic problem.A lot of publishers come to Andrew and ask if Coral has technology that can fix their problem.When asked for specifics they say that there are people being horrible in their comments sections - and ask if Coral can get rid of it.
âTo which I replyâŠ.. Letâs say itâs gone - now what? What do you want out of these comments?â
They usually say that their ultimate dream is a comments section that they never have to read or bother about ever again and that they can ignore completely.
âIf thatâs your strategy - why donât you never have comments? Why donât you never talk to your audience? Why donât you stop listening to your audience? Just broadcast at them from a distance and hope they like it - and if they have any ideas or corrections you can just stick your fingers in your earsâ
That is a strategy - but in a digital world not an optimal one.Should You Shut Down Your Comments?Although the majority of publishers still have them - several big names have closed off their comment sections entirely. Reuters, Popular Science, The Verge and many others have taken this approach - and encouraged their readers to take the discussion on to social channels instead.Why?
âThey had no vision for it and abandoned them. A small number of people came in and yelled and this put off others from joiningâ
Andrew used an interesting analogy: If you walked into a coffee shop and everyone was standing on tables screaming at each other - would you stay? If the coffee shop was known for this, would it stay in business?This mismanagement is what lead to them axing their comments entirely. Because they didnât understand what they were for and how to nurture them in the right directions - the numbers stayed small, the quality deteriorated and they put off potential quality commenters.
âComments arenât the only answer to everything - if you believe you have a better strategy then great. I donât think every publisher should have comments - and I certainly donât think they should have comments everywhereâ
So who should have them?
âThose who want to think about what it means to host and own your own community with flexible tool vs handing all that over to Facebook and Twitter - where you donât own the data or community. They are the ones who are monitoring and measuring the most direct relationship with your most engaged community membersâ
Facebook groups can be a great way to prototype and connect with people, and you should definitely be on social platforms for marketing and outreach. But should you hand over your community entirely to them - or should you truly make your audience your focus?Andrew pointed to YouTube and Twitch stars who fanatically read and answer their comments to the point where it even dictates their content.This makes them far more approachable to their audience who feel seen and acknowledged - and is a key part of their appeal and success.Read our guide to WordPress community plugins and themes to learn how to add a community element to your site.Many publishers havenât embraced this mentality yet though.
âWeâre in an old broadcast mentality on the internet. A lot of publications today - especially legacy publications - are essentially printing their newspaper on top of a screen. Itâs just printing. Rather than thinking this is a digital space how do a digital spaces change the nature of information? If youâre not listening to your audience why should they listen to you?â
The fundamental problem that Andrew sees with publishers is that they have no real vision or strategy for what they want out of their audience conversations.They start building online communities because they think that they should, but without a clear idea of the "why".Finally thereâs the tech problem.A lot of publishers come to Coral with the idea that itâs better to just leave this to the experts - by which they usually mean Facebook.
âThis happens a lot less now after things like Cambridge Analytica - now people understand Facebook isnât the haven of wonderfulness that we thought it wasâ
Facebookâs business model also favours behaviour that isnât good for news or journalism.
âFacebookâs goal is to keep everyone on Facebook - that is their number one, absolute goal more than anything else. They make money from you being on Facebook, they do not make money the moment you leave... Everything is geared towards never clicking the link, never go out, comment on the headline and never read the piece - which is very bad for journalism and the level of conversationâ
Facebook, YouTube and others also value engagement as a metric above all else.
âEngagement is higher when people are angry and hate each other. Theyâre screaming at each other, coming back and forth, spending more time, posting more repliesâ
These are metrics that the platforms optimise for, leading to systems that are optimised for polarised, terrible interactions.[caption id="attachment_7194" align="aligncenter" width="1004"]
Adding facebook comments to your site has never been easier, but do they provide enough tools for moderation?[/caption]This is really bad for publishers and society in general - so why would you surrender your community interaction to third parties who want to just keep everyone on their platform and keep them angry?Facebook and Twitter also actively reward poor online behaviour.
âThis particular comment is getting a lot of engagement - so letâs highlight it. If someone says something extreme, obnoxious or abusiveâŠ.. If Facebook doesnât remove it itâs going to climb higher and higher until everyone sees it. Youâre rewarded for being unpleasantâ
And what about the people responsible for keeping the conversation civil and productive?
âThe moderation controls for Facebook are lousy. All the money and resources go to the things most people use like the commenters spaceâ
So now weâve looked at the problems, letâs consider some solutions.What are Coral doing about it?Andrew and his team at Coral work on three different goals.
âWe donât gather data to sell data, we donât have ads, our goal is not to keep you here at all costs, we donât try to keep you addicted. We also invest heavily in what we believe are the best moderation tools and interfaces in the world to help control the conversation in a meaningful wayâ
When Comments Sections Make Sense for building Online CommunitiesThe first question we need to ask ourselves - what is the role of community in our mission?How does a meaningful two-way dialogue fit into:
Social media, Google forms, comments sections - all have their uses. Itâs up to you to determine exactly the right mix and balance for you.Everywhere or nowhere?
âThere is a big gap between everywhere and nowhere in the middle. I give permission to close comments on some stories - in fact please do you should. What you should do is figure out your resources, goals, and a promise you can keep around the conversationâ
Andrew gave some examples of different community models:
[caption id="attachment_7193" align="alignnone" width="1202"]
The Times closes comments on some articles and moderates almost all others[/caption]
âReally think in a more flexible way - what are you trying to do and what are the benefits for you of community?â
Maximising the potential of communitiesA lot of the work of running communities often just feels like removing the bad - rather than highlighting and leveraging the good.If you get your comments section right - it can bring a lot of benefits to your brand:JournalisticallyâYou can get new tips, sources and ideas. Commenters will have lived experiences in the communities you serve and topics you cover to help improve your reporting. You can create a loyal audience who can be a part of improving your coverageâBusiness and RevenueâCommenters spend more time on site, click more links, and give more shares - usually about 7x more than non-commenters. Theyâre also far more likely to be subscribers, stay subscribers, stay loyalâCommunityâPeople will support each other, answer their questions, be entertaining, share perspectives - really be part of the experience. They can show what itâs like to live some of the topics that journalists coverâŠ.. People also share their feelings and emotionsâWhat can we do to improve our existing comments sections?
âOne of the best things we can do is to highlight best practices. If weâre looking for new ideas and tips then letâs feature those - which we have a way of doing very quickly - and making the best thing visitors see the best comments chosen by the journalists. You can highlight it on social media and say âhey everyone look at this interesting comment and conversationâ
Andrew mentioned a comment from the Financial Times that went viral the day after Brexit - it got more than 30,000 retweets.The Financial Times reached out to the commenter and took them on as a guest columnist.
âWe can highlight and bring forward these voices, highlight when the comments make our work better. For example thanking commenters when they make corrections. We can feature them on our newsletter. One of the fastest growing newsletters at the Washington Post is called Read The Comments - and showcases the best comments from the last weekâ
All these strategies make it clear that community is at the heart of the reporting, and let us highlight the best as well as removing the worst. The combination of carrot and stick is what will really build a great community.Andrewâs Key TakeawaysAt the end of the interview - I asked Andrew to sum up his most important advice for publishers.
âWhat I recommend to publishers of all sizes, but especially small publishers - first you need to be clear on your mission. Before you make any decisions about technology or strategy on a single piece or idea, really be clear on what your mission is and what do you do?â
From there you can start to think about what specific role conversation and community can play in this - and how can you encourage the right kind of conversation.
âThe second piece to be clear about: who are you serving with that mission? What can the role of those people be to help you fulfil your mission more effectively?â
Then try different things. When building an online community - some things will work and some wonât, as every audience is different.You need to test, experiment and see what works and what the right mix is - but the key point is not to undervalue this space and overlook the potential for your business.
âThink about this as different kinds of engagement and conversation. Try something and see how it goes, whether that's on social media, your own space or some combination. Look at it from a thoughtful perspective and be clear - here is the conversation, here is why weâre doing it, here is what we expect, and here are the lines of what we will not allow. Then you need to enforce it, see if you can build a conversation and watch where it goesâ
Hopefully youâve got some good ideas about what you want out of your community and how you can get there.It might not be an easy ride but Andrew gave a strong case for the benefits of getting this right.Check out The Coral Project or reach out to Andrew for more information and advice on building your own great community.