The St. Louis Post Dispatch runs a site called Stltoday.com. It is their representation of what a newspaper website should be. They have gone through various incarnations of the site since it started and they always seem to be behind the times.
I don’t blame them for trying things. They represent an industry being assaulted from all sides. While they try to give what their readers want, they fail so often it’s comical.
The latest problem is their commenting. While I see a possible need for public, anonymous comments on a website, they should be better controlled. The problem is that Stltoday tries to control them, but does a horrendous job.
First, let’s discuss why there needs to be public, unmoderated comments. Yeah, I cannot see a reason why.
Second, let’s discuss moderated comments. This I can get behind. Readers engaging each other and the paper under a set of controlled circumstances. Controlled meaning the comments are vetted by a moderating team.
Here is the issue in a nutshell. Stltoday published a story about a drug dealer going to prison for selling drugs that killed a college kid. The kid’s name was Ryland Peace Ort. It is a horrible story of pain.
Of course, the comments immediately went to blaming Ryland:
So, if you make the assumption that is really the mother, it’s sad.
While I cannot begin to understand why a mother would go online to defend against anonymous folks, it is a shame that Stltoday allows this to happen when they can easily stop it.
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