Hi! How are you? Also: up yours! Screw you! Get stuffed!
Welcome to the wonderful world of web comments, where telling somebody to get bent is an acceptable way to say hello.
Engadget for one is fed up with it, and the site has turned off comments for a while until they "feel like we've shaken some of the trolls and spammers loose from the branches".
Abusive commenters aren't new, of course, any more than abusive emailers or abusive forum users are. But what's different these days is the scale of it.
Now that every conceivable media outlet is obsessed with letting people have their say, people are having their say - and just like in the real world, some of those people are crazy.
Some are smug, some are several sandwiches short of a picnic, and some are absolutely furious about absolutely everything. And thanks to the combination of anonymity and an audience, even the most mild-mannered, easy-going commenters become balls of fury whenever they go near a Submit button.
Don't get me wrong. Comments are important. Commenters can spot errors, add insight, bring in much-needed hilarity to dull subjects and create a situation where instead of being the end of the story, publication of an article is the beginning of the story. That's great.
Unwanted comments
What's not so great is when the comments come from more obsessive types, the kind of people who decide not to buy something and then spend the next year haranguing everyone who did.
Imagine if that happened in real life. You're coming out of Comet with a new microwave and some wild-eyed bloke is shouting at you. "Oi! BIG NOSE!" he yells. "SANYO? CRAP-YO! YOU SUCK!"
The reason that doesn't happen in real life is because your choice of microwave really doesn't matter to you, let alone to anybody else. The same should, but doesn't seem to, apply to your choice of mobile phone, MP3 player, laptop, desktop or videogames console.
What worries me about this is that being abusive is no longer the exception, it's the rule - and abuse breeds abuse. Engadget's comment-killing move may have been justified, but when you run pieces that slag off your readers - no matter how firmly your tongue is wedged in your cheek - then perhaps it's no surprise that some of your readers will get angry.
It's a circle. Commenters annoy you, you write something to wind up the commenters, commenters get angrier… and if things get so bad you turn off comments altogether, then people are going to get absolutely furious.
Would you like to see where this is going, see how snark and abuse is infecting not just the comments but the articles, too?
Head over to Gizmodo, where Joel Johnson calls iPad critics "snivelers" before taking some reasonable points and delivering them in the style of a furious 13-year-old. Concerns over DRM and app approvals are "spilling gallons of capitulative semen to a fatuous, dystopian cuckold wank-mare" from people who are "childish" and "noxious" and "autistic," writes Johnson.
It's appalling, and as commenter TK Warrior notes: "If this 'argument' was posted by any commenter… they would be banned in a second." But they wouldn't. That's the problem. We're so used to abuse being people's default online position that we barely even notice it any more.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Liked this? Then check out Rude internet users are making you stupid
Sign up for TechRadar's free Weird Week in Tech newsletter
Get the oddest tech stories of the week, plus the most popular news and reviews delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up at http://www.techradar.com/register
Your comments (15) Click to add a new comment
psyfur
February 4th 2010
15. @amit you have basically said only rich people that are educated and conform to a certain way of thinking and writing should be allowed to publish/comment. That sort of agenda is what holds back the human race, take your stuck up view of the world and gtfo the internet :p
Alert a moderator
kasino72
February 3rd 2010
14. Techfan:
"In "real life" we are constantly being forced to lie and hide who we are and what we feel"
I think it's more that we operate from toddler-style self-absorption, and the internet means we don't have to wind that back like grown-ups.
If you haven't seen it before, this piece (adapted from a speech) by the late David Foster Wallace talks about exactly that. I think anyone who wants to use the Internet should be forced to read it before they're allowed on :)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178211966454607.html
"my natural default-setting is the certainty that situations like this are really all about me, about my hungriness and my fatigue and my desire to just get home, and it's going to seem, for all the world, like everybody else is just in my way, and who are all these people in my way? And look at how repulsive most of them are and how stupid and cow-like and dead-eyed and nonhuman they seem here in the checkout line..."
Alert a moderator
amit290
February 3rd 2010
13. I blame the kids, might as well, they get blamed for everything else :-).
Seriously though, good truthful article, but I dont think anything can be done about it. There is no criteria to comment on stuff on the web. You dont have to be 18+, you dont need a GCSE in English, you dont even need to be able to type out words fully (txt t4lk), and spelling.... whats that?
If you've registered on a blog site, you can become a keyboard warrior! Winding people up with silly comments is becoming as trendy as an ASBO.
Alert a moderator
azp
February 3rd 2010
12. I'm someone who rarely ventures out of my feed reader, so I can't say much about the comments - but I have certainly noticed an increase in the uppity self-important writing style of some blogs of late. Kotaku and TechCrunch are the worst offenders to my mind, but Engadget can be just as bad. It just gets your back up even before you've had chance to formulate an opinion. I follow these blogs for a slight light-hearted look at the news, but they do so whilst splicing it full of, often negative and ill-informed, opinions. Personally I try and drop sites that do this too much, but for some sites, there's just no better alternative.
Emotive content breeds emotive comments, especially when you've got a captive audience, they just have to respect that.
Alert a moderator
mupwangle
February 3rd 2010
11. @techfan
So what you're saying is that everyone is a sociopath and the only reason they conform is that they'll get battered?
People aren't all angry all the time. Sometimes people are angry and sometimes they vent either on or off-line. However, with most people considered "normal" this is not that frequent an occurrence. I'm genuinely not taking the **** here, but if you think that a state of constant anger is normal then you should really consider speaking to someone.
There is also a misconception by people who are constantly venting that they aren't doing any harm to the recipients. The "Sticks and Stones.." adadge isn't true.
Alert a moderator
mupwangle
February 3rd 2010
10. And one more thing...
The reason that Engadget posted that many times about the ipad is that they're a consumer technology site and, like it or not, the ipad is the biggest talking point in consumer technology at the moment. And no, it is not because of sites like Engadget. I've been asked my opinion on the iPad by loads of people in the last couple of weeks by people who don't go to tech blogs. They are interested because it's made by the people who make their MP3 player and looks really pretty. I've lost count of the number of blogs and forums that have all had arguments about the merits of the ipad. Engadget were reporting stories on the ipad because it is what everyone is talking about, so it's perfectly justified.
Alert a moderator
techfan
February 3rd 2010
9. There is this notion that people are worse on the internet.
I think thats wrong. I think more people are BEING THEMSELVES.
In "real life" we are constantly being forced to lie and hide who we are and what we feel - and most (if not all) humans feel fairly impotent a lot of the time, unable to affect things in the world around them - getting stomped on by others.
Humans are angry, and finally there is this release valve called the internet. Unless you get banned for course.
There is nothing worse than stating your opinion on something and the get called a "troll" by some little person who vent their rage by banning people they don't like.
Humanity - this is your life.
Alert a moderator
mupwangle
February 3rd 2010
8. Forgot to say, I pretty much stopped reading comments on all the Weblogs,inc sites a while back because the tone had got incredibly nasty. Especially on Joystiq, which is somewhat annoying when the media are trying to portray gamers as maladjusted dangers to society and the commenters just helped cement those stereotypes.
Alert a moderator
mbb
February 3rd 2010
7. @psyfur Engadget were actually down on the iPad. They pretty much universally criticised it. But they did post loads of articles about it - because loads of people read them. Commenters only represent a fraction of readership, and they got a truckload of comments. And I did see the editors responding to comments criticising them.
But the comments did completely degenerate. Stories about tablets announced at CES where the iPad wasn't even mentioned were just becoming slanging matches.
Alert a moderator
mupwangle
February 3rd 2010
6. >>If bloggers/writers etc cant back up their work and responded to comments they should leave the web.
Sorry, but I couldn't help hearing that in the voice of Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons.
I fail to understand why people who visit any blog feel that they have some sort of unalienable right to comment. If Techradar, Engadget or whoever publish then that it entirely up to them as long as they don't break the law.
>>The community responded by attacking the editors, which is my opinoin was the right thing to do.
How could flooding the site with nasty comments be in any way justified - surely they should just refund everyone's subscriptions. Hold on - you mean it's free!
Mibbe we should all try and get hold of a pitchfork...
Alert a moderator
psyfur
February 3rd 2010
5. Gary, misses the point as always. After a little investigation on my lunch break it appears that engadget removed the comments because users were unhappy with their PR - pro apple bull **** articles.
The community responded by attacking the editors, which is my opinoin was the right thing to do. If bloggers/writers etc cant back up their work and responded to comments they should leave the web.
Editorial is a two way process.
Alert a moderator
mbb
February 3rd 2010
4. This blog does not fit my particular needs, and is therefore is completely useless to everyone. I must insist that you all read Graham Cluley's blogs instead, regardless of your want you personally want/need from a blog.
If you like Gary Marshall's blog I genuinely believe that he has brainwashed you. Alternatively, you may be intellectually challenged. There could be no other possible reason to enjoy something I do not.
Alert a moderator
kasino72
February 3rd 2010
3. James, that comic panel may be the greatest thing ever :)
Alert a moderator
james
February 3rd 2010
2. Reminds me of this classic xkcd - http://xkcd.com/386/
Alert a moderator
craiggrannell
February 3rd 2010
1. Pfft. That's all easy for you to say, big-nose.
Alert a moderator
Tell us what you think
You need to Log in or register to post comments