Tag Archives: comments

Process Post 12: Community Guidelines

I don’t have comments enabled for most of my blog posts.

At first, it was because the first few posts I created weren’t aimed at receiving commentary—they were just to set up the premise of my blog. I have two thoughts about this now:

  1. If I open up comments on my blog posts, this blog space can become an active community space where I interact with my audience.
  2. If I don’t open comments on my blog posts, this blog will serve as an informational hub, but to connect with my audience, I definitely should have other platforms where there is open communication.

With the latter thought in mind, my post last week on how I might incorporate transmedia storytelling seems like the most ideal situation for my audience. However, in “The Psychology of Online Comments,” Maria Konnikova states that moving from a single blog post to larger environments on social media “often produce less than desirable effects, including a diffusion of responsibility: you feel less accountable for your own actions, and become more likely to engage in amoral behavior” (Konnikova, 2013).

It’s an assumption, but I don’t think Pokémon GO players spend all of their time commenting on blogs—they probably come here for what they need and take off to where they normally spend their time online, so it’s possible that turning off blog comments isn’t the sole cause of such “amoral behaviour” on a broader social platform.

The thought of opening up to commentary in a community I’m technically responsible for is quite daunting, and feels different than if I’m a business responding to potential customers. WordPress has the ability to let you approve comments before they are shown under a blog post, and most social media platforms have comment filtering functions to ensure that certain words and phrases you won’t allow will not show in your comment section. However, limiting comments too intensively can also negatively affect the comment section. As mentioned in the article, removing comments can lower your audience’s willingness to engage with your content, which will affect whether they share it with others (Konnikova, 2013).

With all of this in mind, I’ve come up with short list of community guidelines for my blog:

  • Is it respectful? Even if you disagree with somebody, they should be treated with respect. Avoid using derogatory language and dishing out personal attacks.
  • Absolutely no hate speech allowed. This is a community where everybody is welcome, so discrimination, hatred, and violence against individuals or groups of people for any reason is not tolerated.
  • Are you trolling? Please do not post comments with the sole purpose of provoking others in the community.
  • Do not promote your own products or services, or post irrelevant links.
  • Please have fun! This is an open environment where fellow Pokémon GO Trainers should feel safe to interact with each other, no matter how little or often they play.

Konnikova, M. (2013, October 23). The Psychology of Online Comments. The New Yorker. Retrieved April 11, 2023, from https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-psychology-of-online-comments

Process Post #12: Questions, comments, concerns? How about a comment?

Comments. You can find or hear them almost anywhere.

Under your posts on Instagram; under that YouTube video you watched a couple days ago; from the hairstylist you see every few months; or behind your back and you may not even know.

Now those are just comments in general, but I’m here to look at online comments in particular.

The realities of the Comment section

While the Comment section of a social media post or blog are there for readers and viewers to express their thoughts and opinions, they aren’t always the safest places to be on the internet.

Depending on your platform and audience, these types of spaces can fill with aggression and mockery, anonymity and false information, and more (Konnikova, 2023).

Konnikova (2023) notes that this may have to do with the “online disinhibition effect” that John Suler coined and that I’ve brought up in conversation before. It’s that feeling of being able to say and do anything like nobody is watching because nobody knows who you are. Your identity is hidden by the shields of the internet, you could say.

At the same time, anonymity must be credited for its ability to encourage participation. Instead of fearing uniqueness and difference, commentors feel a sense of community. There is little to no fear in speaking one’s mind and the opportunities for creative thinking are practically endless.

Creating and implementing guidelines for commenting

To mitigate these potential issues, it would be good to create a set of guidelines for commenters and their commenting.

If I made a list for Two A.M. Thoughts, I’d make sure to include things like being respectful of others and their comments; keeping comments relevant to the post; using appropriate and clean language; and have fun with the discussion.

These guidelines are likely something you’ve read or seen before many times, but they are things that I would hope to see in the comment sections of my site too. They are values, if you want to call them those, that I uphold when I comment. So, it would be great to see that reciprocated.

In terms of implementing them, I would most likely create a page on my site dedicated to community guidelines. However, I wouldn’t expect every visitor to read that page before getting around to their commenting. Perhaps a disclaimer above comment forms with a link to the community guidelines page may do the job. Ultimately, it will have to be something moderated and reiterated until commentors catch on.

References

Konnikova, M. (2013, October 23). The psychology of online comments. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-psychology-of-online-comments

To Infinity and Beyond: The Future of Spilling the Royaltea

After twelve weeks of non-stop posting, PUB 101 has come to an end. But that doesn’t mean that Spilling the Royaltea has run out of potential, so here’s the plan for what’s to come.

To the Future

Over the course of these twelve weeks, I’ve really developed a love for blogging. I get to write about things that interest me without having to worry whether it would work well for an essay or whether it would be enough to get me a good grade. And having the opportunity to do things that I’d never get to do in other academic contexts, like using slang, or contractions, or starting my sentences with “so” and “and” has been so refreshing. I get the space to publish my own thoughts without thinking about what my prof will think with every word I write. So for all the above reasons and many more, I will be continuing with Spilling the Royaltea after the end of PUB 101.

In continuing my writing process, I’ll definitely keep writing posts for my hot takes, ranked, and news categories. In particular, the news category will have tons to talk about in the coming weeks, with King Charles’s coronation coming up in May. All in all, I’ll keep challenging my audience to think differently about issues and not always take for granted what they read or hear in the mainstream. And if they want light and fluffy, they’ll still have that too in the form of the “ranked” category and “Fashion, FAST!” segment.

I also want to bring back my “the chronicles of Harry and Meghan” category. Since I won’t be taking any courses in the summer, I’ll have plenty of time to watch the documentary and read the memoir, and I’m sure I’ll have lots to say about both.

And I might even create a few new categories too, like a “hot topics” category. I’ve noticed that when writing my hot takes, there are some things that I haven’t really made a final decision on, like whether the monarchy should be abolished and whether we should be worried that Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis will end up like Prince Harry. So maybe in this section, I could discuss both sides of the argument and invite readers to weigh in too.

Even More Web Design Improvements

Of course, I still want to work on my website design skills. I might even take off the training wheels and redesign Spilling the Royaltea without a template, like Gertz suggests. Now that I know the basics of WordPress, I think it’s time to branch off and try to do things my own way instead. There are still a bunch of elements I’d like to change, but my template is preventing me from actually making these changes.

For example, when readers click on one of the categories on the menu bar, I want them to see little previews of several different posts instead of the big featured image being the first thing they see. I also never got around to making a logo, which I think is one of the most important parts of website branding. So I will definitely get to that too.

Example from "melatonin gone missing" of the post previews I would like to include on my website. Features short previews of each post with a small featured image.
Example from “melatonin-gone-missing.com” of the post previews I would like to include on my website

Overall, these changes will culminate in realizing the ultimate potential of my personal cyberinfrastructure, which will represent me and me only. And, since the site will no longer feature PUB 101 content, I can focus solely on royal family content. I might even consider archiving the PUB 101 section and making my site a fully-functioning royal family gossip site with no affiliations to SFU.

Community Guidelines

I also hope that in my future content, people start interacting more with my content, so with this comes the responsibility of creating community guidelines to ensure that Spilling the Royaltea remains a safe and uplifting community for royal family followers.

The four pillars I’ve developed for Spilling the Royaltea include respect, tolerance, openness, and togetherness. These four aspects relate most strongly to the comment section, which can end up pretty nasty if not carefully regulated. Konnikova even writes that the magazine, Popular Science decided to ban comments because of the “culture of aggression and mockery” it can cause. So that’s why I want readers to be respectful of each other when commenting, tolerant of others’ opinions and ideas, open to listening to and learning from different perspectives, and feel a sense of togetherness and community for learning and sharing.

And to protect both myself from seeing any hate comments (which, thankfully, I haven’t received yet), I’ll be regulating my comment section from those “anonymous” users who think it’s so easy to hide behind a screen and comment mean things just because it’s harder to identify them, like Konnikova describes. I’ll approve of comments as they come, and hopefully, this will keep things safe, inclusive, and welcoming on Spilling the Royaltea, which is all I could ask for as a website owner.

Here’s to the last process post and to a new chapter of Spilling the Royaltea. Olivia, signing out.

References:

Campbell, G. (2009). A personal cyberinfrastructure. EDUCAUSE Review, 44(5), 58. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2009/9/a-personal-cyberinfrastructure

Gertz, T. (2015, July 10). How to sur­vive the dig­i­tal apocalypse. Louder Than Ten. https://louderthanten.com/coax/design-machines

Konnikova, M. (2013). The psychology of online comments. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-psychology-of-online-comments

Wong, O. (2023). Hot takes. Spilling the Royaltea. http://spilling-the-royaltea.com/category/hot-takes/

Wong, O. (2023). Ranked. Spilling the Royaltea. http://spilling-the-royaltea.com/category/ranked/

Wong, O. (2023). News. Spilling the Royaltea. http://spilling-the-royaltea.com/category/news/

Photo:

Disney. (n.d.). [Buzz Lightyear] [Image]. https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/is-buzz-lightyear-named-after-buzz-aldrin/

comment section crusade

It was an average Monday when I went to do a routine check on the Google Analytics running on my site when I was met with 18 comments waiting for my admin approval. While I was thrilled at my sudden rise to fame, I was quickly disappointed when the comment section was not populated by real people but rather by some very supportive, poetry-loving, bots. At least I think they’re bots, they could be a supportive individual who runs about 18 Russian Escort service websites that is leaving these comments, but I think they’re a bit too robotically insightful to be true. Since I have decided not to approve them onto my site- as their linked websites are not the type of content I would like to affiliate my site with I have included some of the comments for entertainment here.

“Can I simply just say what a comfort to uncover somebody who truly understands what theyre discussing on the web. You definitely understand how to bring an issue to light and make it important. More and more people ought to look at this and understand this side of your story. I was surprised that you arent more popular since you most certainly possess the gift.”

– Zie

This one almost made it to the actual site just out of how much flattery Zie decided to write.

I have to thank you for the efforts you have put in writing this blog. I am hoping to view the same high-grade blog posts from you in the future as well. In fact, your creative writing abilities has encouraged me to get my own blog now 😉

– Irene

The winky face throws me off a bit, but I appreciate how I have convinced someone in a very different line of work to apparently get their own blog now.

And while these examples may have been all positive, trolls on the internet and created bots with ill-intentioned coders are the plague of many online creators. Websites like Popular Science are going so far as to turn off comments on their site, as they find, “internet comments, particularly anonymous ones, undermine the integrity of science and lead to a culture of aggression and mockery that hinders substantive discourse (Konnikova 2013).” In plain-speak, having troll comments can make readers doubt the information, no matter how reputable the source.

The reason that I brought up my own comments relates to the impact of commentary on one’s mental health. For myself, the comments were positive, leaving behind a positive impact on my self-image and view of my created content. This is not the case for many other minorities who decide to publish themselves virtually though, with a study by the Guardian finding “that of the 10 most abused writers eight are women, and the two men are black (2016).” This disproportionate attack on minorities is continually found within the Guardians writers with hate spewing into the comment sections of journalists with specific religious, gender, and racial markers (Gardiner et al. 2016). This creates a dangerous crossover of a public platform and racists with hidden identities, a ground for hatred without clear consequence.

Personal mental health also takes a major blow from such online activity and the issue grows day by day. It’s also important to recognize that the internet wasn’t always like this, “in the early days of Twitter, it was … a place of radical de-shaming” a place where differences and obscurities were related to and supported (Ronson 2015). Times affirms such a “personality” of the internet, saying, “once it was a geek with lofty ideals about the free flow of information” but somewhat recently having turned into an entity that helps as much as harms (Stein 2016). Trolls can exhibit a range of habits from “clever pranks” to “harassment and violent threats” with the most dangerous idea being the lack of knowledge of how the internet could react (Stein 2016). Creators do understand that “you can’t exist .. for very long without learning that something you write is going to upset someone, sometime, somewhere,” however the response of disagreement should never be something of potent hatred or false accusation that trolls deliver with ease (Atwood 2022).

So whether it’s bot comments that sing your praises or hateful speech that makes you sick, it’s important to distance yourself from comments that are not from those whose opinions really matter.

 

Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. “Your Feelings Are No Excuse.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 1 Apr. 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2022/04/margaret-atwood-hitchens-prize-speech/629443/.

Gardiner, Becky, et al. “The Dark Side of Guardian Comments.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 12 Apr. 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/12/the-dark-side-of-guardian-comments.

Konnikova, Maria. “The Psychology of Online Comments.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 23 Oct. 2013, https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-psychology-of-online-comments.

Ronson, Jon. “When Online Shaming Goes Too Far.” Jon Ronson: When Online Shaming Goes Too Far | TED Talk, TEDGlobalLondon, 20 July 2015, https://www.ted.com/talks/jon_ronson_when_online_shaming_goes_too_far/transcript?language=en.

Stein, Joel. “How Trolls Are Ruining the Internet.” Time, Time, 18 Aug. 2016, https://time.com/4457110/internet-trolls/.

The post comment section crusade appeared first on ammarah.

Community Guidelines

The site’s community guidelines will be centered around my community standards which are heavily informed by The Guardian’s community standards. These include:

  1. I acknowledge criticism of the articles I publish, but will defend my stance as these are simply my subjective opinions regarding topics.
  2. While I understand that some people feel strongly about certain topics, I will remove any comments that may be disturbing or threatening to others.
  3. I will not tolerate racism, sexism, homophobia, or any other form of hate-speech.
  4. I will remove any comments that are evidently commercial or spam.
  5. I welcome debate and dissent, and even personal attacks.

While most of these guidelines are inspired by The Guardian’s standards, the fifth and final guideline is rather unconventional. I will be offering an anonymous option in my comments section so that users of all walks of life feel comfortable participating — especially people that may need to hide their identity. For instance, my essay surrounding Iran’s recent protests may prompt Iranian citizens to comment; however, they may want to conceal their real names due to the regime’s violent crackdowns.

The fifth community guideline makes me think of the TED Talk we watched in class, “How I turn negative Comments into positive interactions”. The speaker expressed that anonymous users feel more comfortable to say what they want and to critique; however, this often leads to hate comments. I feel that while some people will critique my posts, I am open to criticism. As the speaker explained, “empathy is not endorsement”, and therefore, this creates a more open platform for dialogue.

On the other hand, this is simply a local photography blog so I honestly can’t say I’ll stir up any controversy. With that said, “you can’t exist as a writer for very long without learning that something you write is going to upset someone, sometime, somewhere” (Atwood, 2022, para. 7).

I will implement these guidelines by outlining them in a separate page. This way, users understand that their comments will be public and they can follow the standards. Also, having open interaction will allow me to document how people engage with certain topics. Comments coupled with Google Analytics will allow me to determine what kind of content is best for my audience. These tools will address the question: What does my audience want to see? Finally, while there is a contact page where people can directly request certain topics, I believe people are more inclined to comment organically as they engage with content. 

It’s been a pleasure creating this site — thank you! 🙂

Process Post #12

Online comments & Community guidelines

The online comment area should be regarded as the embodiment of freedom and democracy. We can be frank in the comment area, exchange ideas in-depth and understand each other’s views to participate in the topic discussion. However, at the same time, it is also the place where language violence and harm are the most serious. One of the most common critiques of online comments cites a disconnect between the commenter’s identity and what he is saying (Konnikova, 2013). Psychologist John Suler calls this phenomenon the “online disinhibition effect” (Konnikova, 2013). The theory is that when you get rid of your identity, the usual constraints on your behaviour will also disappear (Maria konnikova, 2013). This can be even worse with anonymity. 

Konnikova said that of the 900 randomly selected user comments on articles about immigration, 53% of anonymous commentators were uncivilized, while 29% of registered non-anonymous commentators were uncivilized (2013). Therefore, Konnikova concluded that anonymity encouraged rude behaviour (2013). How should we deal with such physical behaviour? Becky Gardiner et al. said it was simple: “do not read comments,” or turn them off completely (2016). Many people have done this by permanently disabling their comment threads because they become too laborious to disturb (Becky Gardiner et al., 2016). However, simply deleting comments is not a perfect solution. Konnikova said that deleting comments will affect the reading experience (2013). It may take away the motivation to participate more deeply in a topic and share it with a broader audience.

My attitude towards my comment area is to welcome everyone to express any opinions in the comment area since I found this blog. I encourage everyone to participate and create an atmosphere of shared learning and discussion. I have not received any comments so far, not to mention malicious or offensive comments. However, through this week’s reading, I really should consider the concern of comments, so I may create an online community guide in the future to maintain a friendly, open-minded, and respectful discussion area. For example, I might make the first rule that any derogatory comments of any race, religion, gender, age, or ability are unacceptable.

Moreover, I will make it clear in the community guide that such comments will be reviewed and may be deleted. I hope all discussions will focus on topics of common interest rather than offensive comments about others. At the same time, based on my desire to create a shared learning environment, my community guide will make this point clear again. For example, I would advise people to post valuable and relevant content to help others. Furthermore, expect users to submit content based on their own honest opinions and experiences.

This is my current idea for community guidelines, and I will create a dedicated community guidelines page in the future. Starting from the mission and value of my website, I will list out clear key points and rules that create a safe space for my entire audience to connect and interact with each other.

Reference:

Featured Image via Pinterest

Gardiner, B., Mansfield, M., Anderson, I., Holder, J., Louter, D., & Ulmanu, M. (2016, April 12). The Dark Side of Guardian comments. The Guardian. Retrieved March 28, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/12/the-dark-side-of-guardian-comments 

Konnikova, M. (2013, October 23). The psychology of online comments. The New Yorker. Retrieved March 28, 2022, from https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-psychology-of-online-comments

 

Week 12 – Diving into the Deep End of Comments

The comments section can be a nasty place.

We learned early on about the online disinhibition effect, which implies that anonymity may allow one to shed their usual restraints or integrity. This means that you may say something you wouldn’t normally or engage in a conversation you would usually avoid because no one actually knows who you are.

This is easily facilitated throughout comment sections that allow people to post anonymously. An article from the New Yorker discusses how comments are often uncivil because there are no consequences for your words. Posting anonymously allows you to say whatever you want and then hide away and pretend it never happened.

“Without the traditional trappings of personal communication, like non-verbal cues, context, and tone, comments can become overly impersonal and cold.”

Maria Konnikova

This article also notes that anonymity is not always bad, but it can promote engagement, risk taking and creativity. Konnikova discusses how people may be more likely to participate in a conversation.

Another article posted by the Guardian talked about who faces the most abuse online. This article showed data revealing that women, people of faith, or members of the LGBTQ+ community received the most abusive comments.

I have often left comments on friend’s posts, or community events, but I often leave this section alone because of all the hate and abuse that can occur. It hurts my heart to see the words people post when they are protected by the anonymity of their computer screen.

But can these interactions be turned into something good?

We watched a Ted Talk in class from Dylan Marron that showed how negative comments could be turned into positive interactions. He has received tons of internet hate from the videos he has created, and he decided that he would call them to try and regain the humanity behind their comment.

A lot of these phone calls went really well, and Marron was able to prompt commentors to think before they post. The most impactful thing he said was that empathy is not endorsement. We can disagree with someone but still try and understand their viewpoint.

“Empathy is not endorsement.”

Dylan Marron

This is so needed today. There is so much hate and division between people with different political or cultural views.

Empathy allows us to extend understanding to the people around us.

Empathy allows us to realize that we all have different upbringings, relationships with our parents, and histories of abuse.

Empathy allows us to see the human in the person before us and take a moment to understand before jumping into hate.

There are people behind every post. Extend empathy before posting cruel messages or a critical comments.

Enjoy the sunshine today friends 😊