I’ve keeping my eye on newspapers and online commenting for a while. Letting people comment on the newspaper like a blog seemed like an interesting idea. My interest was that I thought that newspapers wouldn’t stay on top of controlling spam comments. I was wrong. Where they lost control was with the actual commenters. Without some sort of accountability, apparently people feel free to say anything they want in this sort of forum. Threatening and abusive language, insults, random and profane comments… Apparently it’s all OK, as long as nobody knows who you are. It’s time somebody with a brain took control. This sort of thing doesn’t help anything. You need a moderator, and you need some accountability.

My first thought was that requiring accounts would be my first suggestion. Putting a name to that filth would stamp most of it out pretty quickly. While I came up with one idea, Derek Powazek has has come up with 10 Ways Newspapers Can Improve Comments.

Here are ten things newspapers could do, right now, to improve the quality of the comments on their sites. (There are lots more, but you know how newspaper editors can’t resist a top ten list.)

How long before newspapers start taking these sort of measures? I’m betting it’s going to go downhill quite a bit further at most papers before it gets better. I don’t think the newspapers grasp the negative effects of this sort of thing. Sure their site numbers are going up, but is this the sort of traffic that’s going to make you money? I don’t think so.