News websites that don't allow comments?

[Greta]

Or which effectively restrict/censor them?

 

Sadly, it seems that comment sections are little more than platforms for the spewing of stupidity and hatred. I know that I can opt not to read the comments, but I think I'd rather support those websites that either don't allow them, or do a good job of restricting them. There really is no reason to give nasty people a public platform, so I'd rather support the websites that don't.

 

Suggestions?

[Greta]

I use BBC America in mobile version, and I don't notice any comment section...

 

Maybe it's there and I just don't notice?

I went to the main BBC site and it looks like they have separate message boards and blogs where comments are allowed, but not as part of the news article pages themselves.

 

Thank you, Karen! :)

[Happy2BaMom]

I think CNN has dropped comments. Or at least I can't see them/find them anymore.

 

[Lady Florida.]

I hope it's a new trend in the U.S. I don't ever recall seeing a them on the BBC website and I always liked that. Comment sections on news sites will destroy any remaining faith you might have had in humanity. 

[Greta]

I think CNN has dropped comments. Or at least I can't see them/find them anymore.

 

My husband was telling me that the comments at CNN were among the worst anywhere (though they seem bad to me everywhere) so I wouldn't be surprised if they just put an end to it altogether.  Thanks!  

[Greta]

Comment sections on news sites will destroy any remaining faith you might have had in humanity. 

 

What amazes me is that even on articles that are light-hearted, "human interest", no-big-deal kind of stories, people will still find an excuse to spew venom and be incomprehensibly hateful.  And I guess my faith in humanity is just too delicate, because I can't deal with it any more!!!

[hornblower]

most browsers have extensions you can run which block comments. I do that on cbc because it's still a decent source for cdn news but the comments were making me :cursing: . I couldn't trust myself to not scroll down LOL. So now I don't see them at all. 

I had to update my browser yesterday & adblock, popupblock and comment block are the first things I installed.

[Guest]

I think I've said this before - Internet comment boxes are MIA (mass idiocy aggregators). I don't intentionally avoid sites with comments, but I do intentionally avoid scrolling to them in all but a few cases.

[Bluegoat]

Some places have better comments than others.  I find the CBC website is ok, though not great.

 

The Guardian can have quite good comments, but the moderation can be quite biased, especially in some sections of the paper - super PC.  I once got moderated for commenting that social norms had changed significantly about teenagers marrying people who were much older and listing a few literary works as examples.  Apparently that sort of thing can be triggering. :glare:

[Serenade]

One of my local news sources used to have a decent comment section, and they moderated it fairly effectively.  People could still state opinions, and even some that were quite negative, but the really vile stuff was moderated.  I guess it cost too much time and effort, so the company changed the parameters to only allow people to post through their Facebook account.   The idea was that it would make people more accountable for what they said.  What ended up happening, though, was that the comments dropped by 90 percent, maybe more, because people didn't want their comments linked to their Facebook account.  Pretty much now almost all the opinions are the politically correct ones, and that's not very useful, either.  I much preferred it when there was a moderator, but I can see how that would be an expense that many organizations would prefer to cut.

[Tsuga]

Seattle Times dropped comments, ostensibly because of "maintenance" but really because 90% of the commenters appeared to be active members of the American Nazi party or the Ku Klux Klan. Some of that stuff was just repulsive.

[gardenmom5]

Seattle Times dropped comments, ostensibly because of "maintenance" but really because 90% of the commenters appeared to be active members of the American Nazi party or the Ku Klux Klan. Some of that stuff was just repulsive.

 

King 5 and komo also have dropped comments.

 

I read on some UK sites - and lest you think that only US sites attract whackjobs  . . . e.g. tornados. EVERY SINGLE TIME there's a story out of tornado alley, you will get someone saying they should build with brick because they hold up.  (never mind the damage done by the London tornado a few years back.  and it was tiny. TINY.) but there are also good comments explaining the physics of a tornado and how they do so much damage.  (better than the actual stories.  there's a reason homeschoolers use newspapers as examples of poor writing.)