How often do you comment?
So we're at our Feministing retreat discussing our comments section, and thought we'd give y'all a poll to take on your participation in comments. Thanks!
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ok, this is my first comment ever- i've tried to log in using my LJ account and it's never let me but I'm so irritated I've created a moveable type account. I've mailed you guys 2 or 3 times now to ask if you can get the 'lose 25lb in 3 weeks' ads down but to no avail- feministing really doesn't seem the place for them!
Hope y'all are enjoying your retreat!
Jess
however, I am looking forward to actual commenting from now on. am just a bit sick of seeing some poor woman grasping her belly flab, hoping to lose "25lb of stomach fat"...
Yes! I want the dieting ads gone too.
I hardly ever even try to comment, because it takes an eternity to go through, and 99% of the time I get "this page could not load." I actually don't know why I'm bothering right now.
Agreed. It takes too long to load the page. It's too difficult, though I wish I could comment more often.
I have been personally attacked in the comments because of what I've said, which makes further commenting pretty unappealing.
I try to comment, and it tells me i'm logged in until i hit submit - then it says i need to log in, and if i don't copy my comment, i lose it.
Commenting is scary because you never know how someone will interpret your opinion, but the few times someone took issue with my comment, I thought it over and it might've been justified. It's good, it keeps you on your toes.
PS this time, it worked in one shot. there you go.
I have that happen sometimes. Here's my fix: open the "login" link it gives you in a separate tab. Log in, close that tab, then refresh the tab you were commenting in. It'll tell you it needs to resend information. Hit "okay" to let it resend your comment. No copying needed.
The same thing happens to me at least once a week. It's very annoying.
might be a pain, but have you thought of having a message board?
it would be easier to moderate (maybe) and you could avoid having good posts hijacked by trolls.
I find it quite annoying to reread through a whole thread once more comments have been posted because when people reply to something, it doesn't come up in the order of who posted, but of who you reply to.
Hi, I'm a little puzzled at how the answers are configured. Only one of them combines comment-reading/comment-participating ("I read comments but don't comment myself.") The rest separate comment-reading from comment-participating and if you do both, you have to pick one or the other as your answer.
Two answers are the case for me:
"I sometimes read comments" and "I occasionally comment"
but I can only pick one. Are you wanting to gather comment-reading behavior? Or comment-participating behavior?
I comment on occasion, but I read the comments on any article I find particularly interesting (about 20% of the articles). Usually, by the time I get around to reading the articles, any comment I would have posted has already been stated by another member.
My complaint with the commenting section is that I check the "remember me" box and when it says I'm logged in it turns out that I'm not. [It just did that now.] Personally, not a fan of the movable type comment host.
But I still love feministing
I have this problem on multiple computers, as well, which is annoying. If I think I'm logged in and make a big huge comment, then it gets eaten because despite all signs to the contrary I am not logged in, I rarely bother re-typing.
That, and, I subscribe via a reader, and I can't comment from that. I have to open a new window and comment, so I usually only comment if I'm a) not busy (rare) and b) really, really have something to say.
Agreed. I do the same thing and then I lose my comment. I dislike movable type as well.
I found that if you hit the back button, the text is still there. Or, I copy the text before I post, just in case =/
I thought I had been flagged as a troll at first because I was having so many problems with Movable Type! My first comment was not well received, and after that all my comments kept kept getting eaten by the system. I have discovered that staying logged in works wonders, if you have a computer where you can afford to do that. Whenever I get logged out, getting logged back in is such a pain that I avoid commenting for a while until something really catches my attention.
BTW I have been incognito lately not because of movable type but because I decided to spend less time on the internet and more time in the sunshine. Totally worth it!
I comment pretty much daily (although my home internet has been down for about two weeks so that's made things tough) and I agree with a lot of the problems the people on here have technically when it comes to commenting.
Sometimes I've already signed in and I've typed a huge comment only to try and post and then it says I'm not signed in and it's eaten my comment and I have to go back to the drawing board. That's annoying. The multiple posts are also super obnoxious. But overall I don't mind because I love reading (for the most part) what everyone on here has to say and I'll deal with the little technical difficulties to discuss what's important.
I voted as occasionally comment, but could have easily gone with don't comment. I read much much more than I comment. I'd call it rarely, rather than occasionally.
There is no capacity to edit or delete comments, there is the "ghost log-in" issue, there is the issue with not being able to preview posts to the community section. Usually when I come onto the site the first thing I do is hit Sign Out (even though it says I am logged in), then get a "fresh" Sign In on the books. Trying to comment otherwise is an exercise in futility.
Oh, and the hyperactive and sometimes arbitrary moderation policy of the site is also destructive to trying to piece together some of the comment threads. I've seen comments made in ignorance rather than outright hatred, and instead of correcting the commenter their comment gets deleted.
I understand people have need for a safety bubble but this is very souring to me as a frequent comment reader. I could never argue that censoring a comment is a way of addressing the bigotry/stupidity/etc therein.
Oh, and (see what I mean about the inability to edit comments?) rather than having a confirmation page it might be best to have the system redirect back to the main article immediately, with the comment displayed if it went through (if that's possible). There is some lag in post to appearance time so I doubt this is more than wishful thinking.
I think the deleting of comments that are offensive has gotten much better in the past few weeks. Some might think the moderators are over-sensitive now but I'd rather them air on the side of caution than be too lenient. Especially after so many people got so rightly offended and hurt here by the outright transphobia a little while ago.
I'm just glad that now instead of them just deleting a comment without anyone knowing what happened it says "This comment has been deleted" or something like that. That way all the comments in response to it don't seem completely crazy.
I don't read the comments often, because there is not enough involvement from the writers in calling out racist, classist, and transphobic comments -among other issues- from others to make me feel like it's worth my time.
If I do comment every once in a while, I make a point to read all the other comments.
My only complaint is that after submitting a comment, I must log out and then log back in in a different browser window in order to see the comment appear.
Also, people's profiles with their past comments and community posts are available by replacing their username with yours in on the profile page, but there is no easy way to go there from their username. It would be nice if I could just click a person's username and go to their profile page so I can see what they have written in the past.
I've lurked here and read the comments for a few weeks now, but I figured it was finally time to de-lurk. Still, I'll probably remain one of the quieter users.
I think I can safely consider myself of the more frequent commenters here. :-p
I think a couple issues for me come up -- the first being that everything takes FOREVER to load no matter where I'm looking at the site (work, home, friend's computer).
The second, as previously noted, the comment doesn't show up all the time when going from made to seen. This is usually cured by refreshing the entire page. With this, if there's a way to script the page so that it skips down to your comment in thread, that would also help. Using CRTL+F and typing in my handle gets tiresome when I'm really active in a commenting thread.
As far as moderation, I think taking on more mods (even just comment mods) would be a good idea. I know Metafilter has time-zone sensitive mods for the forum. I think since all the mods are on the East Coast for the majority of the year and there are commenters in almost all time zones, this wouldn't be a bad idea.
oh! also, I think it'd be helpful if we had user icons to help differentiate posters. It gets really montonous after a while and it would help in distinguishing us apart as users.
I try to comment, and it tells me i'm logged in until i hit submit - then it says i need to log in, and if i don't copy my comment, i lose it.
I have the exact same problem. Also, when this happens, the bit at the top of the screen that says 'welcome (username) Sign out' changes to 'welcome (false) Sign out'
I've had all the same commenting issues as the above posters with not being logged in, being logged in as "false".... I would love to comment more but it's such a pain in the butt I don't. I even wrote a really long community post once and tried for about 20 minutes to post it, but it was continuously eaten by the internet. I would seriously suggest some other kind of commenting system here.
Feministing has great content and seems to be the top feminist blog and discussion site.
As such, I think it would be nice if it moved to a better platform than Movable Type. If it was on Scoop or SoapBlox (or perhaps Slash or Drupal) then we could easily see when people reply to our comments, and could subscribe to people's diaries. People could even vote their favorite stories to the front page. The site would have much richer discussions and would be far more a community site.
I think it's unfortunate that the editors and community members put so much into the content, but the platform is just so weak. I don't think it would be that hard to move to something better and I think it would be well worth it.
I second this so very much. Feministing is a great site, with wonderful content, awesome people and great interaction, but the framework is (as we've seen in this thread) so user-unfriendly that numerous people don't even bother with commenting.
I will also say that the feministing staff (while they have my utmost respect for the great content of the site) would, I believe, benefit from a dedicated technical support person. I've noticed that the staff is very active in comments, and quick to address user concerns when it comes to trolling, language, safe space, et cetera (as they should be), but it is very rare for any of the staff to address any of the concerns that people raise regarding the technical issues with posting. Similarly, e-mails regarding technical matters go largely unanswered.
I know that the site owners are dedicated to creating a great feminist website, and I think that they have made it clear that they take reader concerns seriously, so that leads me to believe that the failure to address technical matters is probably because no one on staff has the time coupled with the aptitude to do so. Maybe it would be worthwhile for feministing to put out a call for a volunteer tech intern? I'm sure that there would be plenty of people willing and able to assist.
Just a thought.
It would be great if they had a dedicated tech person.
Also they can just go to xlan.org or scoophost.com who will both host the site and set up the site on a Scoop base. This is what dailykos runs on and is surprisingly easy to administer.
...then we could easily see when people reply to our comments, and could subscribe to people's diaries. People could even vote their favorite stories to the front page.
You can actually do this now by checking out user's profile page and subscribing to their RSS. You can also "recommend" a post and that's how it makes it to the frontpage side bar. But I hear what you're saying and we're definitely aware of the need for more dedicated tech service. Thanks everyone!
Honestly, I have no idea how to do any of that stuff and I'm a regular. Some names on here you can click on and some you can't (like mine you can't but I have no idea how to create a profile or anything like that so is that why it's not clickable?). I've tried to read over all the technical stuff in the community section about my profile and whatnot but I'm not a computer/technical person and it's too complicated for me. I'll agree with most people here that technically this website is lacking. That's why I just make my posts as simple as possible. But if it were easier and less problematic I think that would be great because then it would open it up for even more people to comment and post.
I know how to make your profile visible (your name clickable)!
Go to the community page, then click edit profile at the top. Below the Save button is a 'View your profile' link. Click on that, then copy the web address. Then go back to Edit Profile, and paste that web address into the Website URL space. Then your profile will be visible to those who click on your name.
Great tip! I had no idea you could do that or that I even had a profile.
Okay, I just did all that, hopefully that worked. Thanks a lot :)
Wait, I don't think my method works. When I click on other people's names who have done it my way, it just brings me to my profile. Damn, then I have no idea.
Ok, I got it this time. Go back to your profile, and enter this into the website URL place: http://www.feministing.com/profiles/[YOUR USER NAME]
Keep in spaces or it doesn't work
Oh shit, I didn't know about any of that. Thanks for pointing that out.
Maybe you can add that to the FAQ. And if it's convenient it would be good to add link to your profile onto the top or side rail so that people would notice that they have profiles.
I comment here and there when I have something to say. Much of the time I have nothing to say so I don't comment. I will agree that there are some unreasonable people who comment here.
I'm late to this discussion, but thought I'd add my two cents' worth. For me, as a relative newcomer to feministing and organized feminism, the comments are at least as important as the original postings. In fact, I usually choose which posts to read based on the number of comments that it has generated. Those are the areas where I can learn the most, by following the back and forth within the comments. Even where there is disagreement or hurtful comments, it is very educational--not that I endorse any hurtful comments or trolling, but again, as a novice, these can be very educational. For example, I learned A LOT about transsexuality and transphobia through the recent debates. So, for me, any way to encourage more people, more points of view (as long as they are not deliberately hurtful), in the comments, is good.
And thanks to all of the other commenters for the invaluable education!
I wish it were easier to keep track of when there were new comments. The part on the main page only lists the last 5 comments-- why can't we click on that and get a list of all recent comments? Also, when a thread gets long its a pain to scroll through and find out where the new comment is, so we should be able to click on that list of new comments and get taken directly to the comment.
I also get randomly logged out a lot even when it says I'm logged in, and pages take so long to load after posting that I have to reopen it in a new tab if I want to keep reading.
I find the discussions in the comments section interesting, but the website technology is lacking.