Online publishers are wrestling with ways to effectively create and manage online communities. At OJR 2007, participants turned to several examples on the Web to discuss content, anonymity and ways to make sure spammers don’t squat in your site’s comment section. Active user communities, such as those flourishing on Bakotopia.com and Naplesnews.com, illustrate that community networking elements can thrive on local news sites.
OJR participants debated anonymous versus sourced reader comments, as well as ways to engage users into joining an online community of readers.
Ask an interesting, or better yet, proactive question and you’re likely to introduce interesting user-generated content. But how do you keep your comments above board and free from spam infiltration?
In the session, moderated by dot-com journalist and author Janine Warner, participants debated whether readers posting content to websites should be required to do so under their real names.
When veteran journalist Mack Reed launched LAVoice.org, he required names to post stories but left comments open. “It helped to keep people honest if they were posting under their real name,” he says. “The ones that ignored the rule are the ones who came there to cause trouble.”
OJR editor Robert Niles introduced an important distinction in the degrees of anonymity, especially to guard against impersonation.
“There’s a difference between anonymity to your reader and anonymity to you as the publisher,” he says.
“One of the things I always want to make sure I’m doing on my sites if someone has a real reason to be anonymous, I want to give them a way to contact me. As publishers, I want to make real sure we’re guarding against impersonation.”
Niles urges publishers to allow users to create their own publishing space on news websites, instead of limiting readers to commenting on staff-produced stories.
“I hate to use an old buzzword bingo term, but when you let readers initiate content on your website through blogs and discussion boards, instead of reacting to it through comments, you make the site far more sticky, and elicit much more loyalty to your site.”
About Sarah Colombo
