I’ve written my local online news program for 10 months or so. The bar couldn’t be any lower to add two cents to this wordpress blog.
But I rarely get comments. Nor do I get much input in the events calendar.

I am all ears on how to encourage this type of interaction. Any ideas?

The “oh, anonymous commenters are to blame for all evil” party line is so tiresome and lame.

You are accountable for what you let happen on your site. Site owners who choose to be “anything goes” should make sure those who use the site KNOW that is their philosophy, but if you don’t want to be “anything goes,” set rules and enforce them, and don’t you dare claim something grumpy or profane is not your fault, it’s those darn anonymous commenters …

I vigorously oppose requiring registration for commenters, much less real-name registration. No one is ever required to identify themselves in face-to-face forums (like public meetings) – why should you have to do so online? And for what it’s worth, some of the nastiest comment discussions I’ve been party to have been on Facebook, where everyone theoretically is using their real name. Sorry, not a panacea.

Set your rules, announce them, enforce them — it’s an art, not a science, so sometimes you’ll get bitched at for letting something through or NOT letting something through, whatever. The buck stops with you. If you see a comment that you don’t want on your site, because it violates a rule you have declared important – no racism, sexism, profanity, personal insults, whatever – delete it (or if it’s in a moderation queue, just don’t approve it). Simple as pie.

We still have contentious discussions in the comments – setting and enforcing rules doesn’t mean everything is sunshine and rainbows and unicorns – but none of the “you are/no, YOU are/no, YOU are” garbage that turns up on other sites. Mostly, not surprisingly, sites kept by old media companies who don’t really understand how all this optimally works.

My former hyperlocal news site got tons of comments, mostly civil and constructive, sometimes contentious. Commenters had to abide by three simple rules: Play nice. No personal swipes. No anonymous posts (but screen names were welcomed).

What kept things on track was moderation. Easy, right?

I also think that using a comment system like Disqus or Intense Debate is really great because it allows people to leave a comment with their twitter or Facebook accounts – thus their followers see that they are leaving a comment. And I like the threaded comments.

Both Disqus and Intense Debate are easy to set up – here is a quick how to on Disqus that I wrote -http://blogtelling.net/blogging-social-media-wordpress-info/wordpress-plugins/use-disqus-one-tool-adds-threaded-comments-facebooktwitter-login-to-your-comments

Because my “blog” is actually a Ning network, commenters must be members of the site and the default setting is for them to provide their first and last name. It’s not required, but most people do so and I do believe that it helps keep the comments civil. I also think the fact that they are interacting with their friends and neighbors in our smallish community, people are less likely to get mean and ugly.

I actually like the fact people aren’t really willing to say things they don’t want their name associated with. It’s easy to talk a lot of trash when you don’t have to take responsibility for what you’re saying.

At the same time, I don’t think that the lack of anonymity has stifled discussions. We tend to have good conversations on the site. People respectfully disagree with one another and provide solid arguments to back up their claims without resorting to name calling, insults or ranting (most of the time).

I have had to step in a few times if I felt a conversation was starting to deteriorate and help steer the discussion back to a more productive dialogue. In other cases, I have sent private messages to members (particularly those whose comments border on spam) to remind them they are welcome on the site but the types of comments they are making are not. In most cases, the offending member has been very apologetic and continued to participate on the site within the required parameters.

As always, I’d love to have more comments, but I’m pretty pleased with the level of participation.

I’ve written at length on how we manage comments here:

http://orrenmedia.com/2009/08/13/commentary-on-comment/

The upshot: Participate and be transparent and its amazing how easy it is to have a good conversation. Just like in the analog world.

(My one amendment to that year-old post is that spam is a bigger problem than it was then and we’ve modified our practices there to just zap spam blasts.)