UsVsTh3m has decided to give Th3m a direct voice on site, and turned its comments on.
That’s perhaps not a huge surprise, given Rob Manuel’s involvement – he’s talked in the past about the class issues involved in online commenting, as well as presiding over one of the most interesting hotbeds of user activity on the internet. But it runs counter to a long-term trend of sites shutting down comments, deliberately deciding that they’re too much work, too unruly, too problematic, or even counter to the entire purpose of what the site’s trying to do.
It’s a nice start, opening with a joke and a clear prompt to participate, and a potential reward for excellence in the form of inclusion in the daily newsletter – a promise internet bragging rights that act as an incentive to be awesome, rather than merely guidelines that tell you how not to be bad. Worth noting that Rob’s participating there too.
It’ll be an interesting experiment to watch, and if a creative community of jokers is what UsVsTh3m is after, they seem to have started out pretty well.
“Counter to entire purpose” Page not found.
And my research skills arent… well they pale in comparison really; but I did manage to find these: “Big Pic: There’s A Penis Drawing On Mars, You Guys” and “Can I Have A Pet Fox?”
Link seems to be working fine now – think PopSci might have been down earlier.
http://www.popsci.com.au/science/article/2013-09/why-were-shutting-our-comments site wasnt and isnt down. Am I missing something sry to bother.
Sincere apologies. Great post as always. A lot of websites dont seem to think outside the box with comments, big topic really.