Popular Science Is Getting Rid of Comments 473
Daniel_Stuckey writes "From an article announcing the sites' decision to do away with comments: 'It wasn't a decision we made lightly. As the news arm of a 141-year-old science and technology magazine, we are as committed to fostering lively, intellectual debate as we are to spreading the word of science far and wide. The problem is when trolls and spambots overwhelm the former, diminishing our ability to do the latter. ... even a fractious minority wields enough power to skew a reader's perception of a story, recent research suggests. ... A politically motivated, decades-long war on expertise has eroded the popular consensus on a wide variety of scientifically validated topics. Everything, from evolution to the origins of climate change, is mistakenly up for grabs again. Scientific certainty is just another thing for two people to "debate" on television. And because comments sections tend to be a grotesque reflection of the media culture surrounding them, the cynical work of undermining bedrock scientific doctrine is now being done beneath our own stories, within a website devoted to championing science.'"
This comes alongside news that Google is trying to clean up YouTube comments by adding integration with Google+. "You’ll see posts at the top of the list from the video’s creator, popular personalities, engaged discussions about the video, and people in your Google+ Circles."
Re:Sour grapes (Score:5, Informative)
It's not censorship to decide not to host a comments section on your website any longer. It's an editorial decision which affects all users equally.
Re:2013: The Year the Web Died (Score:5, Informative)
You actually have no idea what the web is about do you?
Heres a hint: practically free self publication to an entire world with no effort. That part hasnt changed, and is easier than ever. Have Windows? 3 buttonclicks, and you have IIS up and ready to go. Have Linux? One or two commands and you have a LAMP stack ready to go.
What youre lamenting is apparently that a few freebies are being retracted because people are figuring out that giving randoms a soapbox on your site doesnt improve the quality of your site.
Re:Sour grapes (Score:5, Informative)
You know you don't get credit or paid if you post as AC, right?
Re:2013: The Year the Web Died (Score:5, Informative)
Between these sites slamming the door shut on public comments, walled login gardens, and NSA slimy fingers on everything, it's just super depressing. Feels like a mortal wound.
Seriously, critique the Slashdot comment system if you like, but it's a thousand times better than 99% of the sites out there. And it's pretty simple. Sites not ripping off this system seem like they conscientiously want a reason to slam the door on public conversation.
No it's not. The number of times I use to log in and put my name to the comment only to have it voted up on down not on merit but on popularity was depressing. If slashdot is so good why do we continually hear from people about how downhill it has all gone.
I call BS. Keep patting yourself on the back while the Titanic sinks.
Name one high-traffic moderation/comment system that's better than Slashdot, and explain why.
Even if you manage that, the point still stands that /.'s system is far better than 99% of the sites out there.
Re:Figures, when your primary objective is... (Score:5, Informative)
doctrine (from dictionary.com)
noun
1. a particular principle, position, or policy taught or advocated, as of a religion or government
2. something that is taught; teachings collectively
3. a body or system of teachings relating to a particular subject
I purposely left off their examples, which are religious, although there is no reason that doctrine is inherently so.
Maybe I am not so bright, but I am not seeing a definition of the term "scientific doctrine" as anything more (or less) than "a body or system of teaching related to science."
I suspect you may be confusing "doctrine" with "dogma."
Re:Sour grapes (Score:2, Informative)
Re:the difference (Score:5, Informative)
While you will often see an unpopular posts quickly modded into near oblivion, an hour or a day later the situation is totally reversed.
There are entire mod armies out there that run dozens of accounts knowing that a few of them will have mod points on any given day. They pounce on their topics, mod it to hell, and move on.
Later the thinking crowd arrives and the ship is righted. But the mod army has moved on. They never notice that their graffiti and tags have been painted over.
So, read posts a day or two later, and the landscape is much better.