NPR.org | MinnPost | Charleston Gazette | Vancouver Sun | MarketWatch
NPR switched its user commenting to the Disqus platform this week, and is increasing its moderation efforts in response to user demand.

It took the unusual step of sending readers an email survey in advance, asking for ideas and feedback about how to improve the commenting system. More than 6,000 responded. The big surprise, social media product manager Kate Myers writes, is that readers called for more comment moderation.

We asked this question in our recent NPR audience survey: (more...)

TechCrunch
A study of South Korean website commenters adds to the debate over whether requiring real names improves online discourse. Gregory Ferenstein writes:

For 4 years, Koreans enacted increasingly stiff real-name commenting laws, first for political websites in 2003, then for all websites receiving more than 300,000 viewers in 2007, and was finally tightened to 100,000 viewers a year later after online slander was cited in the suicide of a national figure. The policy, however, was ditched shortly after a Korean Communications Commission study found that it only decreased malicious comments by 0.9%. Korean sites were also inundated by hackers, presumably after valuable identities.

The study, he writes, provides some real data to combat the theorizing that using real names fosters better online discourse. His conclusion: "The presence of some phantom judgmental audience doesn’t seem to make us better versions of ourselves." (more...)

Disqus Product Blog | Infographic
One of the most popular commenting services for news websites and blogs says its data shows that commenters using pseudonyms are “the most important contributors to online communities.”

The service gives each user the option of commenting with a Disqus account, a social media identity or anonymously. It says 61 percent of commenters use pseudonyms, 35 percent choose to be anonymous and 4 percent use their "real identity" verified by Facebook. It also says those with pseudonyms post the best comments, while anonymous comments are lower quality. One theory: People don't mind being accountable online, but they don't want it to blow back on their work or personal lives by using a real identity. A pseudonym protects them while providing a measure of accountability. (more...)

Philadelphia Weekly
Not all Philly.com commenters are racist, "but most are," says Tara Murtha. "Calling black people animals, references to monkeys, phrases like 'welcome to the jungle, baby' and 'That’s how it go in da hood' are all standard comments beneath crime stories on Philly.com when the perp is black." But Murtha can't stop reading the atrocious remarks. "Averting my eyes is not my style. I read grand jury reports and listen to police radio."

Philly.com editor Wendy Warren tells Murtha that the anonymous comments problem is enough to drive her “completely insane,” and that she's working on it. A new moderation system will require commenters to sign in through Facebook. Murtha's reaction: "I have to admit part of me is disappointed, even though this is probably a great step for the 99 percent -- the would-be commenters scared off by the elite 1 percent hogging up the bandwidth." | Earlier: News sites using Facebook Comments see higher quality discussions.

GigaOm, Zombie Journalism

Picking up on my post about how Facebook Comments are benefiting some news sites, others have added valuable thoughts. Mathew Ingram notes that forcing commenters to use real names is a double-edged sword: “Although … Read more