angela_the golo editor: blog 
golo editor's blog
change is coming to our comments area
Published Jan 11, 2008Views: 621
Major change is on the way to the WRAL.com comments area.
The first change is that we are opening all of our news stories for comment beginning Wednesday, January 16.
From local and national news to strange news, political news and even local news briefs, every news story will be open for discussion.
We’ve received lots of feedback about stories being closed for comments, particularly when many others are open, and it has become increasingly clear that the community wants the opportunity to discuss it all. We want to provide that opportunity.
With a change of this magnitude, we have also made the decision to moderate all comments before they appear on the site, with the intent of weeding out the few who try to derail a conversation with off topic or abusive comments.
It is important to note that these changes will NOT apply to GOLO.
We will continue to rely on the GOLO community to bring questionable content to our attention.
GOLO members will have the ability to create their own profiles and blogs, post comments, upload and share image galleries and sound off on community issues 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We do, however, expect GOLO content to fall within our community guidelines and terms of use.
We recognize that full moderation is a tall task and for that reason we have hired a dedicated team of online community moderators.
Our moderators will work to provide consistency, objectivity and fairness while ensuring that comments promote productive community conversation and do not violate our terms of use.
We are also incorporating a voting tool that will let you decide the important stories of the day. In addition to voting on news stories, you will also be able to e-mail friends and encourage them to vote as well.
Story votes will be reset daily, in conjunction with comments, which will open at 7am and close at 7pm, Monday through Friday.
We believe this change will allow room for more opinions and encourage participation.
As always, we welcome your feedback about these changes and remain committed to providing a quality online experience.
-Angela
Click here to read my follow up blog and read comments.
Filed under: Human Interest
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GOLO member since July 7, 2007
January 11, 2008 8:00 p.m.
January 11, 2008 8:14 p.m.
The new screening measures would also hinder the ability for people to have discussions and civil debates about events and issues within the community and the country. Lag-time between comment submission and comment posting upon approval is already a serious detriment to on-line communication on stories with the comment blocker.
[continued]
GOLO member since October 17, 2007
January 11, 2008 8:55 p.m.
Given all of this, I strongly disagree with the expansion of comment moderation, and I hope that WRAL will eliminate (if not reconsider) this initiative.
GOLO member since October 17, 2007
January 11, 2008 9:02 p.m.
However, the moderator factor will produce a flawed outcome. People (moderators) being human will in the end homogenize the opinions of the readers, therefore producing what will amount their (the moderators') editorial viewpoint.
On the stories that have the potential to become ouchy, why doesn't WRAL moderators just post thier editorial opinion at the end of the story and let that be the end of it. The WRAL viewpoint will be protected and it will save a lot of time on everybodys part (the poster, the moderator etc).
There will never be a time in the future when WRAL or any CBC owned company will place itself in a controversial position. The only time that hss happened in CBC history was when Jesse Helmes was on the air. Ironically, his editorial opinions of yesteryear played a big factor in positioning WRAL . .
GOLO member since July 2, 2007
January 11, 2008 11:34 p.m.
The only other slightly eyebrow lifting matter to come along since those days was when Jim Goodmon took his money and went home when the city of Raleigh would not hang lights across Fayetteville Street.
It's always easy to take the safe road, but it may not produce the desired outcome in the future.
Times, they are a changin'.
Somebody shoud rethink this thing.
GOLO member since July 2, 2007
January 11, 2008 11:37 p.m.
GOLO member since July 2, 2007
January 11, 2008 11:40 p.m.
Again, just filter the words you can’t say on TV and deal with those that directly threaten someone. But trying to put Band-Aids on everyone’s emotional boo-boos is silly.
GOLO member since August 16, 2007
January 14, 2008 10:29 a.m.
January 14, 2008 10:45 p.m.
January 14, 2008 10:48 p.m.
January 14, 2008 11:14 p.m.
January 14, 2008 11:31 p.m.
January 14, 2008 11:32 p.m.
GOLO member since September 14, 2007
January 15, 2008 7:15 a.m.
GOLO member since July 10, 2007
January 15, 2008 3:48 p.m.
Response from GOLO:
Yes, beginning tomorrow news stories will be open for comment between 7am and 7pm. That's "news" stories only. GOLO blogs and other content will be open 24/7 and it will be very easy to start your own GOLO blog from within the comments area of news stories. We do plan to open news stories for comment on the weekends in the near future.
Angela Connor, GOLO Managing Editor
Maybe someone can come up with a local opinion site that would be easy to use and available to all who wanted to participate. Maybe a site named inmyopinion.com or something similar. I'm sure there's already a site by the name I just mentioned. I'm not even going to bother to check. But you get the message. Judging from the comments that have escaped WRAL's censors there certainly seems to be a market for a similar forum. Apparently WRAL is either not interested or they don't have the time. Either way, we're left in limbo. But that's about the way it's been on here anyway with the hours and hours time lag between posts!!
January 15, 2008 10:19 p.m.
And moderating everything is slowing everything down. I don't have time to spend waiting on a comment to post and then respond, wait, respond... it's much too time consuming. a 4 minute conversation could stretch hours. Forget that.
This will probably be the last of my comments.
January 16, 2008 2:26 p.m.
the point is to actually comment on articles. not some idiots blog that means nothing. wral sucks
GOLO member since September 19, 2008
January 17, 2008 12:07 a.m.
GOLO member since July 5, 2007
January 17, 2008 6:48 a.m.
Response from GOLO:
We’re not ignoring anything in regards to our recent changes. That couldn’t be further from the truth. We do not like a lot of the personal attacks, and frequent abuse we’ve seen in the comments, and that is why change was necessary. Believe me, we are not ignoring a single thing. We’re also not trying to make “rainbows and unicorns” - we’re trying to create a safe environment where all views can be shared – but shared in a civil way without abuse, attacks, sweeping generalizations and a complete lack of respect. That does not lend itself to productive community conversation.
Angela Connor; GOLO Managing Editor
WOW. Encouraging readers/viewers to move discussion from one place, to potentially hundreds of others. Good luck keeping up with server capacity and the like. I think you all need to review concepts associated with streamlining and efficiency. I have been on this site for quite a while, official registered just a few weeks ago, and can now see my self not coming back. Apparently, WRAL and GOLO are trying to create new ways to run a message board... but why? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
GOLO member since January 8, 2008
January 17, 2008 7:01 p.m.
GOLO member since July 14, 2007
January 18, 2008 1:23 a.m.
GOLO member since July 14, 2007
January 18, 2008 1:24 a.m.
January 20, 2008 3:00 p.m.
Response from WRAL.com:
N2theM8trix - Let me clear that up. No, the comments changes have nothing to do with typos. I want people to let us know when they see typos or mistakes in stories. Of course, I do not like to see any mistakes, but when a typo is made, it should be brought to our attention. -John Clark, General Manager, WRAL.com
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