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Comment crazy

Has the whole world gone mad, or just the comment sections?

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Responses to online coverage of the Tamil protest on the Gardiner this week ranged from inane to ignorant, and almost all verged on certifiably insane.

Many sites (National Post, Globe & Mail, CP24, even NOW) seem to have readerships of crazies, if this week’s comment sections are to be believed.

On Monday, the blog MightyGodKing rounded up comments from sites for both national newspapers. It was enjoyable, but only if you love reading maniacal bursts of anger and spelling errors in all-caps.

Mathew Ingram, a Globe editor, revealed that his newspaper’s site received 427 comments on a Tamil protest piece, but only 148 were published. His reason: many were inflammatory.

Twitter was a horse of a more sinister colour.

A producer at TVO’s The Agenda spotted a retweet (repeated Twitter message) purported to be from Mayor David Miller, stating that protesters were extortionists and terrorists. But when the origin of the message was uncovered, it hadn’t come from the mayor at all but from the anti-Tamil commenter machine.

Also on Twitter, Torontoist caught Energy Radio, a Toronto radio station, sending an over-the-line tweet of its own, and published it (pictured). (Terrorist fist-bumps to all the blogs that outed nutso commenters this week!)

But the larger issue is what to do about these sorts of comments.

For years, comments have absolutely ruled online media. Comments sections and sites like Twitter have ensured that every single person has his or her say, even if that person has nothing to say. It seems if comments aren’t flaming mad, they are, as the New York Times recently wrote, an echo chamber for inappropriate, outdated or simply well-travelled opinions. In time, these oafish antics will completely devalue the currency of comments.

So is there a way to hold commenters to a higher standard? Perhaps calling out aggressive types on blogs – as MightyGodKing, TVO and Torontoist did this week – is the answer? Or could mandatory registration, which allows the tracing back of nasty comments, help? But then what?

It’s a conundrum that’s been splashed out in this space before and won’t be solved any time soon.

joshuae@nowtoronto.com

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