Neena Satija Photo
A New Haven Register reporter had an in-person discussion with Wooster Square and downtown neighbors to figure out how to improve another communal conversation — online.
The discussion took place Tuesday night at the monthly meeting of Downtown/Wooster Square district’s Community Management Team.
Guest speaker Angela Carter, a Register business reporter, said the paper’s staff will start cracking down on offensive comments posted to stories on the website.
Like most news websites, the Register has wrestled the past few years with how to encourage lots of different people to participate in online discussions while avoiding racist, threatening, profane, or other undesirable language. Until now the Register, like many news outlets, has allowed readers to post comments directly to stories, then took down offensive ones if readers alerted the staff. (Read the Independent’s comments policy here.)
Carter drew warm applause from the 15 attendees of Tuesday night’s meeting when she announced that her company will begin screening comments more.
“We think it’s reasonable we don’t publish any racial epithets or misogynistic comments,” said Carter (pictured above).
Attendees of the meeting said they were thrilled and relieved to hear the news.
“It should be moderated. It should be checked,” said Andy Ross. “I’ve been appalled at some of the comments I’ve seen.” He referred to comments on the New Haven Register’s website as well as on local television station’s blogs, such as that of Channel 8.
Neighbors questioned how the system would work.
Will the comments be moderated by man or machine? asked some. They suggested that if the answer is machine, plenty of commenters could figure out how to get around the parameters set by a program.
“It’ll be a combination,” responded Carter. The Register will use a widget that is computer-programmed but constantly monitored by staff.
Winfield Davis (pictured), Town Green Special Services District director of operations, wanted to know if the widget could limit the number of comments a specific user could make in one hour.
“It makes me stop reading the comments,” he said of personalized conversations between two participants on a particular story about a “completely tangential” issue.
Carter said she’d bring it up, but noted that “we want a free-flowing conversation.”
She also announced that the Register plans to give each community management team in New Haven the opportunity to start a blog within its website.
“Can that be our central place?” asked Doug Hausladen (pictured) , the Democratic candidate for Ward 7 alderman.
That’s the idea, Carter replied: People can post meeting notes, event reminders, and documents to the website for their neighborhoods to see. Any comments or material coming in from users would go through management team members before becoming live, and the newspaper wouldn’t exercise any editorial control.
The newspaper will announce its plan to the general public and seek comment at a meeting in the near future in the New Haven public library’s main branch downtown, said Carter. A date hasn’t been set yet; it should happen in the next few weeks.