Are comment sections dead?

Does the sight of hundreds of pages of comments on an article fill you with dread? Do you get fed up of reading the same comment again and again and again?

I read an interesting article today on TechCrunch by Nicolas Holzapfel. Nicholas claims that comment sections have become unruly and rarely add anything particularly constructive to an article because of the way they are structured:

“Lots of comments amounts to an enormous long list of entirely unstructured text. There are no dividers or subheadings, no logical progression of arguments or groupings of opinion and no distinction between unique, intelligent insights and throwaway expressions of approval and opposition. Because nobody can be bothered to read through such a mess before they add their own comment, there isn’t even the structure of a coherent conversation. Instead, there is endless, pointless repetition; conversations emerge, peter out and then re-emerge 50 comments later with new participants who haven’t noticed that the same issues were discussed 50 comments ago.” (his emphasis)

And I largely agree with this. When you get mainstream articles with lots of comments, I will instinctively read the first few and then skim the rest. I will rarely go onto a second page and never to a third.

So what is the answer?

From the looks of things, Nicholas clearly believes that his startup – Yoomoot – will provide the solution, but it is hard to tell from the website exactly how or why!

I’m a fan of Disqus (used on this blog) and the service mentioned in the article – Echo, a real-time comment engine – also looks interesting. However, neither service really solves the specific problem Nicholas highlights.

Should comments be subjected to more editorial control? Should there be more social or Digg-style elements where visitors can vote up popular comments (the BBC website does this, for example)? Perhaps the eagerly anticipated Google Wave will help with more ‘Wiki’-like technology allowing visitors to manage and control comment sections in a more democratic way.

Surely this is an aspect of blogging that is ripe for innovation and fresh thinking?

How do you solve a problem like Spinvox?

I like to judge the issues of the day that are particularly relevant to me not by Twitter trending topics or the most read list on BBC.co.uk, but by the articles that crop up in my RSS reader. They are, after all sources I have hand-picked because they are likely to contain content that I find interesting.

And if these are indeed a fair reflection of what is and isn’t hot right now (in my world), then Spinvox is certainly winning at the moment. On both counts!

But, I can’t help being a little bit mystified by all the attention.

Yes, I know the service is one of the darlings of the Web 2.0 world and, here in the UK at least, has been promoted all over the Twitterverse by its social-media-guru-dude, James Whatley. But why all the recent attention?

You probably know the gist of the furore that has encompassed the company in recent weeks. If not, you can read about it here.

The whole incident has generated unprecedented media attention: numerous posts on the BBC website, national newspapers, Techcrunch… the list goes on.

Then yesterday, Spinvox invited its main detractors to attend a demo at its HQ to see for themselves (or not) just what the fuss is (or isn’t) all about.

Which still leaves me with the question – why all the fuss?

I’m not trying to let Spinvox off the hook. They’ve made mistakes and there is a clear lack of transparency there somewhere. I also don’t think the PR has been handled at all well during this little spat (but that’s another post for another time). Anyone that thinks any publicity is good publicity is misguided.

So is this just an example of a media man/company-hunt? Did the lack of a clear and quick response from the company create a mountain out of a molehill or does the company really have something to answer?

It’ll be fascinating to see how they try and recover from here. Despite their buoyant claims about increases in sign-ups following the BBC coverage and their latest funding round, I think it’s going to be a battle.

About

This is my story. I've always been fascinated by the internet. My first passion was music and I studied a music degree at Birmingham University. But once graduated I quickly went back to the web working as a digital marketer. I also ran a web startup for a few years. In the need of a new challenge, I turned to the world of PR and now work as an Account Director at EML Wildfire. My interest is primarily looking at how PR professionals can make the most of the web and digital marketing. This blog contains my thoughts and things I find inspirational.

© 2012 Danny Whatmough - Made by me