Ideas for Leaving Comments on Associated Content

I almost didn't publish this because I thought it might seem too demanding, but in light of the comments on an article I read today, I have decided to go ahead regardless of how this article "seems."

I have this theory on options for people leaving comments on articles throughout the AC Web site. I have recently read articles on Associated Content that have some comments on them that should not be acceptable. While I wholeheartedly believe that everyone should have the right to express themselves the way that they want, it should not be at the expense of others' feelings. Examples of unacceptable comments would be profanity in any context that could be seen as offensive, and name calling and such.

My suggestions for changing the comments system would be to give power to the people of Associated Content to make decisions themselves on who can leave comments, and what context those comments can have, and initiating censoring software to block out profane words that are usually meant offensively.

I would like to explain what is meant by giving the power to the people. By allowing content producers to choose what comments are to be displayed, you're allowing content producers to take some control over what comments they see as acceptable or unacceptable. I don't know about anybody else, but I would sure enjoy being able to choose whether or not I think a comment is appropriate. Also included in this would be having an option where content producers could choose to not allow non-AC members to leave comments. I recently had to delete 12 comments from an article where one person asked me if I liked cheese. Another had the effect of telling me that I shouldn't be allowed to publish articles at all. I personally want, to some extent, the ability to control the types of comments that are posted on my articles. Myspace.com has given its members the ability to censor comments on profiles and I think it's a good idea.

By censoring comments, I mean something that automatically inserts abstract symbols in place of profanity. Some websites have already implemented this due to the fact that young teenagers and some children access their forums. One site that has been doing this for a few years already is adultswim.com. I have been a member of this site since 2005, and noticed that any and all possible combinations of inappropriate words are filtered out and replaced with symbols. Even such mild words as crap, shoot, and dang tend to be filtered and end up looking like this: !#@*%&.

Granted, we all have the option to delete comments that we find inappropriate, offensive, and just plain mean. However, that can end up being time consuming, especially if you've been unable to log into your account due to vacation, hospital stay, or temporary loss of internet. Some comments can also be extremely hurtful to some people. While constructive criticism is helpful to some, leaving distasteful comments should be unacceptable.

Give the people the option of choosing what kind of comments are displayed and who can leave them. The time being spent deleting such comments just might be put to better use writing more of the excellent articles that everyone enjoys reading so much.

(I am by no means criticizing the way Associated Content runs their Web site, nor am I trying to demand that AC must abide by these suggestions. They are merely suggestions that I thought might be a simple way to achieve an environment friendly to people of all ages.)