In my mind “stop the flagging” sounds more like “stop the madness” because that’s what it is – pure madness.
I’ve decided a few people need a lesson in web etiquette.
On KXLY.com we have a section under every story where readers can comment on the story and interact with each other. There’s also the option to “flag” any comment made. The flag is there for people to be able to notify us if a comment is a personal attack or uses offensive language, such as swear words or racial slurs.
Every time someone flags a comment I, and multiple other employees who work on the website, get an email notification. Each notification has a link to the flagged comment where we can read it. Then we can either leave the comment up, delete it, or delete it and ban the user from ever commenting under that username again.
When we have a particularly high-profile story, such as the officer involved shooting of local businessman Scott Creach, we’ll get 300+ comments – which then leads to about 100 flags. I want to say that out of the 100 flags I deleted maaaaayyyybe two comments because they were unfounded personal attacks against either Deputy Brian Hirzel or Creach.
The other 98 flagged comments brings me to this: Disagreeing with someone’s opinion is not grounds to flag a comment.
Most flagged comments I receive in my email inbox are of someone’s personal opinion that does not include a character attack or profanity. It kills me. It really kills me because each flagged comment takes time away from work that actually needs to get done.
I’m asking – nay – begging you to hold off on the flags unless it’s reeeaaallly necessary. If you disagree with someone’s opinion, reply to them. Have a conversation with them about why you disagree.
Wed etiquette #2 – keep that conversation civil. Hiding behind an anonymous username does not give you permission to be out-and-out mean to someone you don’t know.
I could go on and on, but today’s lesson is about flags. I hope you use your flags responsibly… please?
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1. Your policy should not be limited to merely “personal attack or offensive language” but should also include libel, factual falsehood, trolls, and commercial promotion.
2. If you don’t have the time to monitor the flagged comments, maybe you shouldn’t have comments.
Regarding #1 – our policy does include libel, factual falsehood, trolls and commercial promotion.
Regarding #2 – It would take an additional full-time employee if we were to dedicate the amount of time it takes to monitor the hundreds of comments that are made on KXLY.com daily. We, and many other news organizations, rely on peer review to warn us of personal attacks, foul language, libel, factual falsehoods, trolls and commercial promotion.
This is why I posted this blog – because I want readers to know what the flag button does each time they press it and to know when it is appropriate to flag a comment. If readers were to only press that flag when a comment is – one of the above – then I can do my job effectively.
The basic fact of the matter is that all of us in the newsroom are doing multiple jobs at once. My time as a reporter is best spent on news, tjh, not searching for trolls.
Hopefully that clarifies my intentions. Thanks for you comment!