At some point in the past decade, it became a given that websites must churn page views by giving readers the ability to post comments.
Rarely, if ever, did anyone stop and ask whether it made sense to give a voice to everyone who wants one.
As a practical matter, a very small percentage of readers comments on stories. Even our most reaction-provoking stories provoke a miniscule portion of the readership to articulate a response. And some of the responses aren’t very articulate.
In turn, the process of clearing comments has become a headache, with plenty of comments not adding to the conversation and plenty of inappropriate comments slipping through the cracks and plenty of readers sending in emails to complain about their own comments being dumped.
We’re now at the point where we’re at least willing to ask whether it’s worth it to continue to have a comments section. What better way to resolve that question that to ask for comments on whether we should continue to allow comments?
For those of you who prefer not to comment but merely to click, feel free to cast a vote in the poll.
[polldaddy poll=7012375]