brkl Posted November 6, 2012 The documentary already fulfilled their journalistic aspirations. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Justin Leego Posted November 7, 2012 Polygon did get a fair few snarky comments on that Halo 4 / Pizza Hut story but deleted a bunch (and changed the header image for something a that looked a little less like a high streed restaurant food chain logo) when things got a little too rambunctious for their liking. You could say that they pressed re -- Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
brkl Posted November 7, 2012 Wait, did that picture actually originate in Polygon? Maaan... They are off to a bad start. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sammorris12 Posted November 7, 2012 Yeah it seems weird to hold your head high about how you're resetting games journalism, especially after everything that has happened, and then delete comments that criticise you. If they were honest in making a nicer looking version of Kotaku, I would have been fine with it. It's a shame because The Verge is one of the best sites on the internet, imo. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
syntheticgerbil Posted November 7, 2012 Where can I see the original image? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
brkl Posted November 7, 2012 Everywhere. Rab's article. Comedic image thread. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Justin Leego Posted November 7, 2012 The Polygon Pizza Hut pic was cropped from a Pizza Hut / Halo 4 publicity image. Unfortunate timing meant that the promotion was posted on Polygon (among numerous other websites) and flung into the GeoffKeighleyDoritoPope jouPRnalism Squenix IntentMedia whirlwind at maximum velocity. This review went down rather well though: http://www.theaveragegamer.com/2012/10/30/halo-4-stuffed-crust-pizza-review/ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderPeel2001 Posted November 9, 2012 Polygon did get a fair few snarky comments on that Halo 4 / Pizza Hut story but deleted a bunch (and changed the header image for something a that looked a little less like a high streed restaurant food chain logo) when things got a little too rambunctious for their liking. You could say that they pressed re -- I personally think people should exercise more control over comments. Somewhere along the way it became considered "dishonest" or "uncool" or something to delete comments. I think that's total nonsense. I wish people would delete rude and obnoxious comments from their content. If someone has a reasonable critique, then fair enough, but if it's just "You suck! You totally didn't understand! You idiot!!!" then it's just adding another bit of shit to everyone's day. I remember the good old days at the beginning of the internet where people were, you know, pretty damned nice to each other, and that was partially because moderators were like; "Coming to my website is like coming to my house. Respect me, and all my other guests, or get out." Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Irishjohn Posted November 9, 2012 I personally think people should exercise more control over comments. Somewhere along the way it became considered "dishonest" or "uncool" or something to delete comments. I think that's total nonsense. I wish people would delete rude and obnoxious comments from their content. If someone has a reasonable critique, then fair enough, but if it's just "You suck! You totally didn't understand! You idiot!!!" then it's just adding another bit of shit to everyone's day. I remember the good old days at the beginning of the internet where people were, you know, pretty damned nice to each other, and that was partially because moderators were like; "Coming to my website is like coming to my house. Respect me, and all my other guests, or get out." I agree. If they're deleting comments that are pointing out it was kind of sketchy, that's not cool. But I have no problem at all with actually moderating comments. People are jerks on the Internet. Speaking of respecting the owner of the house and its guests, I have this problem at work all the time. It's just depressing how rubbish people will behave unless they're essentially ordered to conduct themselves. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
feelthedarkness Posted November 9, 2012 Freedom of speech means I need to provide you with a platform to say the most horrific and bigoted things you can think of. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jeremywc Posted November 9, 2012 I remember the good old days at the beginning of the internet where people were, you know, pretty damned nice to each other.... When was that again? DARPAnet? :-P Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shammack Posted November 9, 2012 All the comments that were hidden were reinstated and then the thread was locked. You can see them all on the current version of the article. They all seem like pretty reasonable criticisms to me. The tone is sometimes not very polite, but there's clearly nothing "horrific and bigoted." Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderPeel2001 Posted November 9, 2012 All the comments that were hidden were reinstated and then the thread was locked. You can see them all on the current version of the article. They all seem like pretty reasonable criticisms to me. The tone is sometimes not very polite, but there's clearly nothing "horrific and bigoted." Being not very polite is a perfectly valid reason to delete a comment, if you ask me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shammack Posted November 9, 2012 It's certainly a good excuse for deleting a comment that makes a point you don't want expressed. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
youmeyou Posted November 9, 2012 Better not to have comments at all if you're going to pick and chose which ones suit you better. Politeness is a matter of subjective opinion and sometimes when someone disagrees strongly you can find that as impolite as being personally insulted. It's a slippery slope, to point out the obvious. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Irishjohn Posted November 9, 2012 I don't agree that politeness is subjective, at all. I would have no problem with a site deciding it was going to kick comments that weren't being civil. However, The Verge comments are constantly rife with completely bullshit flame wars and other crap, and Vox has never shown any interest in editing those. As far as I can tell, Polygon doesn't have a track record of curating comments. So, that would call this particular issue into question. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderPeel2001 Posted November 9, 2012 Better not to have comments at all if you're going to pick and chose which ones suit you better. Politeness is a matter of subjective opinion and sometimes when someone disagrees strongly you can find that as impolite as being personally insulted. It's a slippery slope, to point out the obvious. I agree with IrishJohn. Rudeness is rudeness. But this type of thinking is precisely what I'm talking about. For some reason people seem have developed this odd sense of entitlement: "I should be allowed to say whatever the fuck I want on your website!". Erm. No, you shouldn't. A website is private property. The owner has final say on whatever they want to be seen, and that's precisely how it should be. And quite frankly, I wish more people would make use of this power. I think the "You're in my house" analogy still stands. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Irishjohn Posted November 9, 2012 I don't mean for things to get too cozy in here but I'm with ThunderPeel all the way. I can't stand the idea that people feel they can act like dicks and then get incredibly entitled and butthurt when someone says "I don't like it when people are dicks on my site." Again, I'm not convinced this Polygon example fits it, but on the wider question I completely agree. Frankly, if you're going to write something down online that you wouldn't say to the person's face, you're being rude and in no small way a coward. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
youmeyou Posted November 9, 2012 A website can obviously do whatever they want. It's not entitlement to have an opinion of free speech. And if I think a website that purports to support 'community', private as it may be, is likely to delete a comment because they don't agree with it, I will simply stop visiting that website. If idlethumbs started deleting comments that were say, critical of idlethumbs, the situation would be the same for me. I would simply stop participating, because sites that do that end up turning into boring echo chambers. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SiN Posted November 9, 2012 The RPS crew have talked about this a bunch. Their take is the "you're in my house" analogy, which I totally agree with. A little moderation goes a really long way, apparently. RPS comments aren't perfect, but they're the best of the bunch. Heck, it's the only website I bother commenting on. Sites like Verge and Polygon annoy me because extremely obvious flamebait gets a pass. I mean, any article even vaguely related to Google/Apple bursts into flames over the same snide comments every time. Even if there were something constructive in there, it's been lost. IMO that is a boring echo chamber. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
youmeyou Posted November 9, 2012 I support turning comments off completely in those cases. There are plenty of portal sites that occasionally turn off comments for news pieces that are likely to bring in the raging hordes. I'm not saying don't delete obviously racist, sexist awful comments, but 'rude' is a subjective description and I've outlined why I feel that way. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shammack Posted November 9, 2012 I'm not saying don't delete obviously racist, sexist awful comments, but 'rude' is a subjective description and I've outlined why I feel that way. I agree. There's not a single comment on that article that I would personally consider even close to deletion-worthy, so knowing that several of them were deleted makes me distrust that website. You can put up a "we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone" sign in your business, but that doesn't make you immune to criticism if you do it without a good reason. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jeremywc Posted November 9, 2012 I think all communities eventually die if they don't find a way to maintain a level of civility with one another. Some communities need good moderators to keep the level of discourse reasonable. I think this is especially true of high traffic sites like Polygon or official forums for popular games, like MMOs. Some communities probably need to have entire comments and threads deleted, but it's entirely dependent on the size of the community. Self policing communities are great, but they don't scale especially well past a certain point. On the other hand, being too heavy handed with moderation quickly kills smaller communities. Community wrangling is an art in a lot of ways; it's important that a balance be found. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
I_smell Posted November 9, 2012 Agreeing and trying to fix things is good, disagreeing and standing your ground is good, and I'll let someone off for ignoring stuff like this, but deleting comments is really shooting yourself in the foot. I get people complaining at me about all sorts of stuff, but I'd HATE to turn into the "haters gonna hate, if you troll me I'll just block you" type. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Merus Posted November 11, 2012 I am very much on the "you're in my house" side of the issue; it's basically impossible to build a good community without that community having some way to defend itself from malicious actors. Honestly I think the threat of overzealous moderators basically boils down to their comment thread sucking, and I find it very hard to get upset about something that's basically self-regulating. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites