Engadget has taken a somewhat drastic step and decided to disable commenting on its leading gadget blog.
In a blog post, editor Joshua Topolsky says:
“We know you like to have your fun, voice your opinions, and argue over your favorite gear, but over the past few days the tone in comments has really gotten out of hand…”
Topolsky continues:
“Some of you out there in the world of anonymous grandstanding have gotten the impression that you run the place, but that’s simply not the case.”
Many blogs leave it to readers to slate other commenter’s who may have taken things a step too far, some commenters even go out of their way to track trolls down. Other blogs, including the likes of like Techcrunch have a permanent comment review system in place before a comment goes live. You would think a blog of Engadget’s size would consider doing the same before disabling commenting entirely.
Here at The Next Web, we generally permit non-spammy comments and thanks to Disqus, other commenters are able to vote comments up and down so the better comments generally float to the top anyway.
Jolie O’Dell over at ReadWriteWeb has an interesting open thread on the matter which I recommend you dig into if you’re interested in learning others thoughts on the subject.
comments = pageviews for many blogs. for a blog like this one using disqus it can also mean social sharing. i've never liked the look of the comments on engadget but naturally the design doesn't play into the negativity.
Thanks to your site, I also putted DISQUS on my blog. I like all the features it provide. I don't think closing comments entirely is the best way of dealing with the problem but it's their blog, right?
Oh, great, now the anonymous jerks will look for someplace else to park. Sigh.
Engadget didn't turn off the comments section to combat the trolls…That's what they will claim, but the real reason is, readers were at the boiling point with the writers always posting stories ONLY about Apple OR having to include Apple in EVERY story.
It's not the “Apple Haters”. If you are a reader of Engadget and read the comments, then you will notice that even Apple lovers were to the point that they were fed up.
I own several Apple products…iPhone, Mac G5, MacBook Pro, Apple TV…and I was right there with the people who were complaining about the Apple biased the site has taken.
Josh and Nilay get their feelings hurt by some commenters and pull the old “I'm taking my ball and going home” move.
Engadget and EngadgetMobile quality has gone down 500% since Ryan Block left and left it in the hands of Josh. Not saying Josh is a bad guy…He's actually quite amusing when hearing him talk.
But a move like this screams “I'm a whiny bitch” all day long.
Seems like a pretty rash, “alright, screw it!” kind of move. For a blog of Engadget's stature, it seem like they should invest in some kind of comment review system/process.
I can't really blame Engadget. There's always a certain few out there that will always ruin it for the rest. Digg is even worse.
I can't really blame Engadget. There's always a certain few out there that will always ruin it for the rest. Digg is even worse.
Engadget certainly knows how to moderate comments. There is surely more to the story.
Frankly a stupid move that may end up with a dive of its popularity.
It seems a reasonable measure because they want to publish things that are not related. Total to end all know that if a page where you comment on sports will always be people for and against.
I swear some people get online just to be jackasses. They don't care what you say. They'll argue the opposite any way they can, even by ignoring portions of your statements, just to incite heated argument.
Disqus is a great system. I use it on my personal blog. I like it because on top of spam filtering I can whip out the ban hammer and get people by IP address when they become abusive. Oddly enough, I've had to do that 10 times in the last 9 months.
This is an experiment. How does Engadget know that a majority of their readers come to their blog to read other people's comments? One way to find out is to turn off comments and see. This is a great experiment that gives them the opportunity to watch whether or not turning off comments affect traffic.
I read Engadget every day at least three times a day and there is actually more to the story. It's been two weeks engadget has turned into a gigantic Apple commercial with more than 30 articles about the Ipad specifically. It all started when regular commenters of the blog have begun to complain about the overzealous way Engadget has been covering the Ipad and were asking for more balanced (this word came back in every post I have read) articles. Some readers have been giving numbers about how many articles (concerning actual facts but also speculative speculations) had been posted about the Ipad vs. other tech unveiling in the past month and have shown that nearly 10 times more attention was brought to Apple tech event compared to any other manufacturer. Amongst the reproaches, numerous bloggers asked for similar coverage (and speculations) about the Hp Slate, a fierce opponent of the Ipad.
That's where it all started.
Later on some editors would defend their positions and claim that the coverage was fair and equally distributed which again numbers proved to be wrong.
After this, any article posted about tablet/pad devices would trigger a furry of hundreds of comments about how unfair and biased the publications of Engadget would be. I haven't had time to read today's latest comments since it got shut down fairly early, but this morning, the straws that broke the camel's back was the following article : “EROS tablet video is a lesson in why Windows 7 isn't strictly meant for finger navigation”. I think the title got edited and the “Strictly” has been added later. Anyway, this (very short) article would describe, based on a low quality youtube video how bad the finger navigation in windows 7 was even though for most of the video the user would actually use a pen. Additionally, many of the commenters pointed out that the version of windows that was running on the device was not Windows 7 but a skinned version of Windows Vista without the latest finger navigation improvements, showing how poorly the sources were verified. Of course, after two weeks of “forced” excitation over the Ipad with tens of posts about the (over rated ?) device, an article stating that windows 7 was terrible for finger navigation was a suggestive way to compare Microsoft to Apple and lit the fuse for an explosion of comments on the same verge as what had been going on for the whole week, only stronger.
Now you must be wondering why the long post ?
Well it's simple : First I hate that the truth about the shutting down of the commenting section isn;t told and that it isn't due to simple trolling, but to protests on the biased attitude of some of the Engadget editors and the blog content. Which brings me to my second reason : Engadget didn't know how to reply to these complaints and instead of claiming part of the guilt (which was obvious given the numbers) and trying to calm things down actually reinforced their positions by sometimes using unsuited words towards their readers and simply shut down the commenting section and giving false reasons. I think this will have a terrible effect on their readership as for instance I, who is not a commenter, nor a partisan of pro-Apple pro-Microsoft debate feel that their reaction is unprofessional and somewhat unethical.
I have to agree with both N8D & miniguitou. Both spot on comments!
Stay tuned…Engadget's next move…Pay Wall.
Let's hope it's not here.
Misinformation is being spread by Engadget staff regarding the root cause of disabling comments.
While I choose to use a Mac, I’m comfortable using my XP work laptop as well, and like to get a “balanced diet” of gadget news.
Engadget has historically provided both, which I naturally enjoyed. But recently Engadget was posting nothing but dozens of hollow adoring iPad articles for weeks, at the sacrifice of other content, and the few non-iPad articles were littered with pointless references to the iPad or iPhone in some way, with flame bait such as citing (actually quite unjustified) why Windows 7 is a poor operating system for tablets and slates. This caused the “regulars” (even myself) to voice annoyance over the trend.
“Enough already” was the sound of the chorus.
Their “solution” was to insult the readership and create an “iPad” free version of the website, only to kick up the ridiculous iPad over-coverage and adulation, which of course only invoked more poor commentary.
If you could actually see which comments were up and down ranked, the up-ranked comments were quite understandable in their complaints and not “trolls”.
Engadget's Editor&Shill -in-Chief Joshua Topolsky needs to be fired …. He is the problem not the readers.