NotreDame Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 I just found out via Spirit Daily that the liberal National Catholic Reporter suspended comments: We ordered our Web editor to suspend the commenting feature and to hide all previously posted comments because of the malicious, abusive nature of the comments that have bombarded our site in recent days. Comments will be suspended indefinitely. NCR editors will explore options that will allow commenting to return in a way that respects our writers, the subjects of our stories, and our readers. [...] Unfortunately, we have reached a point where the good that an open discussion can do is being outpaced by the damage it can cause when commenters do not respect civil discourse. Comments that have appeared on the website in recent days have been vile and demeaning. We could no longer support hosting a Web feature that allows such despicable comments to appear, and that is why we ordered the suspension of that feature. I haven't been over there in a while. I like the Jason Barry articles about the Legion of Christ, but not much else. Anybody know what happened? Was it just trolling by more conservative-type catholics? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhuturePriest Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 I think Father Z is more accurate when he calls it the "National Schismatic Reporter". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotreDame Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 I think Father Z is more accurate when he calls it the "National Schismatic Reporter". I agree and I remember many of the commenters there did as well. I guess I'm just wished I saw how ruckus it got over there before they shut it down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatherineM Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Trying to be everything to everyone just puts you in the middle of a big target for all sides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnneLine Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 All I have to go on is this article.... WARNING: If you click on the articles cited in his explanation about why they suspended the comments, there are some definitely R and M rated comments and language in the referenced articles! http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/update-ncr-suspending-comments Maybe it was comments dealing with content, but it sounds more as if they were getting overloaded with threatening, tasteless and downright vile trolling. Perhaps it could have just been Catholic Bashing. Lots of that going around. And then, there was this comment on that comment: http://bilgrimage.blogspot.com/2014/01/suspension-of-comments-by-national.html And Fr. James Martin, SJ's facebook comment: https://www.facebook.com/FrJamesMartin/posts/10151807715281496 BUT I didn't see what was going on, so I don't know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotreDame Posted January 11, 2014 Author Share Posted January 11, 2014 Thanks AL! This sheds more light on the situation. The comments at the facebook page were informative, but the comments underneath that blog post at bilgrimage were... um... interesting to say the least. If the NCReporter's comment sections started to look like those at the bilgrimage post I could see how it could get out of hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnneLine Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 Yeah... those were a bit... uh.... over the top, ranging from :eek: to :shocking: Sad. Really and truly sad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Wednesday Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 It must have been bad. Given that the newspaper is more or less mostly just useful for housebreaking or lining a bird cage, sounds like the blind leading the blind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basilisa Marie Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 Yeah, but they could have dealt with people making reasoned, civil critiques of them. It's the rudeness and foul language that was hard to control. And really, the rudeness is just going to make them retreat farther into their own ideas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotreDame Posted January 11, 2014 Author Share Posted January 11, 2014 Yeah, but they could have dealt with people making reasoned, civil critiques of them. It's the rudeness and foul language that was hard to control. And really, the rudeness is just going to make them retreat farther into their own ideas. What I saw on the blog that AL shared was more along the lines of those sympathetic to the reporter's views getting weird. However, what I remember from previous visits to the reporter, was that - contrary to what happens with political websites (eg. breitbart.com or huffpost) - many of the commenters were not sympathetic to the paper. So I'm not completely sure what was going on over there or who was at fault. If you were looking at the comments there and are familiar with the problem, feel free to share. I mostly frequented the Legion of Christ articles and I remember the commenters were almost unanimously on the side of common sense, although the couple articles I read outside were a bit loopy, so I just quit reading the reporter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhuturePriest Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 Yeah, but they could have dealt with people making reasoned, civil critiques of them. It's the rudeness and foul language that was hard to control. And really, the rudeness is just going to make them retreat farther into their own ideas. Are you implying insults and scorn don't win people over? Because that's nuts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristinaTherese Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 It must have been bad. Given that the newspaper is more or less mostly just useful for housebreaking or lining a bird cage, sounds like the blind leading the blind. I don't bother to resist this time: From Fr. Z's post here: http://wdtprs.com/blog/2012/07/national-catholic-cage-liner/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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