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Irish Times website no longer allowing comments

  • 27-05-2022 11:28am
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 553 ✭✭✭


    It seems commenting under articles won’t be possible anymore after a website redesign. There were a lot of cranks down there, but I enjoyed being able to give my opinion and gauge others’.


    Threadbanned users:

    growleaves

    Post edited by Seth Brundle on


«13456789

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 6,171 ✭✭✭Ubbquittious


    It is happening all over, there is a big move towards online censorship in the past few years, all in the name of preventing trolls and what have you but really it is to suppress dissenting opinions. The Journal got a handout from the EU to promote climate alarmism and they are also very quick to ban people now



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 36,787 CMod ✭✭✭✭ancapailldorcha


    This sounds like a conspiracy theory. Do you have any evidence?

    We sat again for an hour and a half discussing maps and figures and always getting back to that most damnable creation of the perverted ingenuity of man - the County of Tyrone.

    H. H. Asquith



  • Registered Users Posts: 16,820 ✭✭✭✭Sleeper12


    The problem is that people think that they are on twitter, Facebook etc every time they post something. They say things that they most likely wouldn't say in real life. I gave up looking at the comment section years ago



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 35,726 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    Newspapers have always had a curated outlet for public feedback, it was the Letters section. And remains to this day with the Irish Times. Obviously at the whim of the editor but it is there, allowing for opinion and feedback. Censorship seems like hyperbole, or recency bias maybe at a pinch.

    Comments on newspaper websites was always a naive idea because it was an open door for extremists and wingnuts ranting at worst, at best offering nothing more than generic "feck the gubberment" snark. And thanks to the whole upvote/downvote system in some places, half the time the top comment was some inane joke. See the journal for a parade of armchair comedians.

    As the cartoonist Twisteddoodles once sarcastically remarked, "having read some journalism, why not read the complete opposite of that?"




  • Registered Users Posts: 7,651 ✭✭✭growleaves


    I thought the comments on the IT web site were in general much sharper than the Letters to the Editor. It's rare that a letter printed in the Irish Times displays any wit or discernment.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 7,695 ✭✭✭StupidLikeAFox


    News comment sections rarely get more insightful than "mehole martin should be locked up" - absolute cesspits the lot of them

    This is how I picture most lads who leave comments on news stories:




  • Registered Users Posts: 6,171 ✭✭✭Ubbquittious


    It is a conspiracy theory. The increase in censorship is all around us though. It's such a change from the 'Wild West' days of the internet with unmoderated USENET groups and what have you



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 36,787 CMod ✭✭✭✭ancapailldorcha


    We sat again for an hour and a half discussing maps and figures and always getting back to that most damnable creation of the perverted ingenuity of man - the County of Tyrone.

    H. H. Asquith



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 35,726 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    That may be so, but can only imagine the work needed to moderate the trolls and bad faith merchants. If it's anything like Boards then to be fair the obvious question in the Irish Times becomes "why bother?".

    Censorship is state control, by definition; newspapers are private enterprise so they're entitled to dictate their user engagement. And as pointed out, they have had that for decades with Letters. And given the heavy editorial policy of tabloids in particular, shuttering comments sections is small potatoes in regards to opinions that are publicised. In any case, the Wild West was a time of lawless chaos, if we run with the metaphor. Why would that be something celebrated, or desired? Comments sections on websites are hot garbage, Christ Boards is barely one step above it, still requires moderation.



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 35,726 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    And just to prove the point about the standard of comment expected from a news site: thejournal has an article about he first case of monkeypox here; the top rated comment(s)?

    Gimme a break. This is not some bastion of free speech and peerless debate of the masses being lost (obviously it's the Irish Times being discussed, not journal)



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  • Registered Users Posts: 858 ✭✭✭DarkJager21


    The Journal is the drizzling **** when it comes to open comments - watch what happens when they let one of the trans lobby take the soapboax to rebuke everyone with guff that has more logic holes than a Swiss cheese, but you have no recourse - the weirdo has spoken now be quiet. Comments always are closed and they won't even post the article on Facebook because they know exactly what the reaction will be. An absolute shitstain of a site parading as journalism.



  • Registered Users Posts: 6,296 ✭✭✭SuperBowserWorld


    The Irish times letters page was always something like an Enid Blyton fan club letters page.

    Dear Sir,

    Julian was having a simply frightful time with some Irish builders. They'd put in the wrong coloured door! Unbelievable.

    Yours etc,

    Timmy the dog



  • Registered Users Posts: 15,918 ✭✭✭✭Loafing Oaf


    Noticed that with Breda O'Brien's piece today. They often turn of the comments if it's guest columnist or about a legal issue or something but I'd never seen Breda's screeds cut off before. I do like to look at the feedback but I can understand why the IT decided it's not worth the hassle.

    Edit: apparently comments

    will return in the near future for subscribers.




  • Registered Users Posts: 2,812 ✭✭✭gipi


    This is what the IT said in their article on Wednesday, introducing the new website -

    On-site functionality allowing readers to comment on selected articles has been under review and will return in the near future for subscribers

    https://www.irishtimes.com/media/2022/05/23/the-irish-times-unveils-redesigned-website-and-app/



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,296 ✭✭✭CPTM


    Oooh, funnily enough that would encourage me to subscribe and actually look at the comments section. I feel like a lot of trolls would be weeded out by the subscription fee.. interesting.. I must look at the subscription fee.



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,755 ✭✭✭fly_agaric


    The subscription fee is probably not going to keep out those (real or automated somehow?) that are being funded to go about their work.

    It's good Irish Times closed it and that it might be more restricted/controlled if it comes back again. Not much of value is being lost from what I've seen. Warning - May contain Nuts.



  • Registered Users Posts: 24,695 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    I’d rather I had the ability to read something which I vehemently disagreed with and the ability aim a retort then have the option removed altogether.

    problem for the site probably with life being id say at an all time controversial setting with the Ukrainians coming to enjoy our benefits, services, security, cash and accommodation plus. , Covid and everything that entails…. There will be undoubtedly certain passionate responses….from both sides of these and other debates… that might require a certain level of moderation which The Times might be unwilling to facilitate as it might alienate certain clients..

    from the Times website…

    • In pursuance of the foregoing and to enable readers of The Irish Times to reach informed and independent judgements and to contribute more effectively to the life of the community, the following principles govern the publication of The Irish Times: news shall be as accurate and as comprehensive as is practicable and be presented fairly; comment and opinion shall be informed and responsible, and shall be identifiable from fact; and special consideration shall be given to the reasonable representation of minority interests and divergent views.
    • We welcome readers’ views - be it to the Letters to the Editor page; by letter, email or fax. We encourage readers’ participation by way of user generated content, social media posting or comment at the end of an article through irishtimes.com. Readers can also express their views by way of postal or telephoned response to The Irish Times.

    they encourage reader participation ? Really ? Might as well change the URL to spoofdotcom.



  • Administrators Posts: 53,127 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭awec


    The problem for the site was the comments were a pile of shite, mostly from oddballs who had nothing worthwhile to offer. Meaningful public engagement they certainly were not, they were an echo chamber for trolls and dullards who would literally manipulate anything into something to criticise the government for, or criticise Ireland for, or both together!

    What I have come to learn is there are a lot of people in Ireland who seem to really enjoy talking about how terrible their country is on the internet. I am not sure I am aware of any other nation whose population will engage so enthusiastically in self-deprecation.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,793 ✭✭✭CrabRevolution


    The comment sections never resemble anything like the idealised discourse you describe though, where there's well argued points that I may disagree with. It's a moronic cesspit of posts with nothing worthwhile to add.

    You could programme a bot to just post the same statement under every article insulting the greens, politicians, the government, the EU etc. and it would utterly hoover up likes.



  • Registered Users Posts: 5,301 ✭✭✭Snickers Man


    One of the ways the Irish Times "moderated the trolls and bad faith merchants" was to make commenting on its website contingent with having a subscription to the service. So it would at least have known, or had genuine e-mail addresses (and bank or credit card details) for anyone posting on their site. Twitter it certainly was not.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 7,139 ✭✭✭MrMusician18


    I wonder will it be the same near future that boards.ie is operating in when it comes to the return of old features



  • Registered Users Posts: 7,139 ✭✭✭MrMusician18


    Without below the line, the scutter that's often above the line gets presented as a societal fact, or the correct opinion to hold.

    Comments are good.



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 35,726 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    A newspaper's editorial policy isn't offset by reams of inane comments amounting to low-effort variations of Fúck the Government/EU/UK/Sinn Fein/etc. etc. Whatever you think amounts to "societal fact" I've read the same rubbish in the Comments sections of the Daily Mail, Telegraph, TheJournal, and so on. The "wisdom" of the crowd seems undimmed by ideological leaning. It's no bulwark



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,793 ✭✭✭CrabRevolution


    Again, you're presenting some ideal that doesn't bear any resemblance to reality. Comment sections aren't full of relevant articulate counterpoints to the topic contained in the article. They're just endless iterations of "government bad".



  • Registered Users Posts: 7,139 ✭✭✭MrMusician18


    They are not all, but some are.

    The Guardian generally has a good comments section for example.



  • Registered Users Posts: 33,650 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato
    Restaurant at the End of the Universe


    Reading usenet back in the day was - with a few exceptions - like trying to pan for gold in a sewer pipe.

    Censorship my... foot. Nobody is or can be obligated to publish your opinion on your behalf. If you want to use someone else's platform you're playing by their rules. Boards deleting your comment or banning you is no more censorship than a newspaper making a decision on how to run its BTL comments or to have them at all is.


    Especially when the IT is giving its weekly soapbox to Breda O'Brien or the odious Maria Steen.

    It took a while but I don't mind. How does my body look in this light?



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,270 ✭✭✭Caquas


    The IT has every right to exclude comments in its new website just as its subscribers have every right to cancel their subscriptions but it is a sad day for public debate in this country. I don’t think any of our major media have comment sections now. That is censorship, even if you think it justified because many of the comments should not be published.

    Do people actually write letters to the Editor? With a €1.25 postage stamp and all?

    Good news for Boards. Where else to vent after reading nonsense in the major media?



  • Registered Users Posts: 14,086 ✭✭✭✭elperello


    It's not the job of the IT to provide a platform for people to "vent".

    Not providing a platform to anyone is not censorship.


    Most letters now would arrive by email, many from abroad.

    Not necessarily good news for Boards if it becomes a haven for "venters".

    Where do we go after reading nonsense on Boards?

    (Just for clarity I'm not suggesting that your post is nonsense)



  • Registered Users Posts: 33,650 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato
    Restaurant at the End of the Universe


    You have heard of email? lettersed@irishtimes.com

    Nice try but I didn't say that many of the comments should not be published.

    It took a while but I don't mind. How does my body look in this light?



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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,270 ✭✭✭Caquas


    As I said, the IT has every right to shut down its comment section. But it is a form of censorship. Not State or official censorship, not ecclesiastical censorship but it is a form of censorship in this digital era which all our major media have decided upon i.e. to shut down a channel for public comment.

    Is this censorship justified? Perhaps, but could the IT not have exercised a more judicious control of these comments? It seemed to me that they were allowing more outrageous comments in recent months, and from the same few posters.



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