While for a while it seemed really fashionable for Star writers to badmouth the comment section on their own website (by my recollection, Tim Steller called it a “cesspool” when Mark Evans hosted the Buckmaster Show a few weeks ago), today Senior Editor Debbie Kornmiller announced that the site would go to exclusive Facebook-based commenting next week:
We will begin using Facebook’s commenting system on our stories and blogs.
Our main goals are to create a more courteous environment for discussion and to give readers an easier way to share Star content with friends. Facebook takes away the anonymity by requiring that account holders use their real name.
Our switch means readers must have a Facebook account to post in comment threads. If you’re already on Facebook, you’ll simply use that as your login to StarNet.
While certainly the move will eliminate some anonymous or pseudonymous commenting, mostly among people not savvy enough to realize you can create fifty Facebook accounts with various names if that sort of thing suits you, the comment section on the article about comment sections has become a wake, mourning the end of a way of life for some … spending hours a day arguing about Obama on the Star‘s website.
Here are five somewhat predictably bizarre comments from those working through the stages of grief (and yes, one of these comments is from someone with an “Obama as Hitler” avatar, because of course it is):
This article appears in Jun 6-12, 2013.
What can I say? I guess God Bless America seems to be the sentiment. And God bless the AZ Star, and the Tucson Weekly, and even the Yuma Sun! May God bless us one and all!
Sheesh, that God dude is sure going to be busy.
KVOA uses FB commenting as well, and I cannot comment over there. It insists on posting my comments with my job title and company, and neither I nor my company take kindly to any association between my opinions on KVOA articles and their corporate self.
I followed a link to this article from fb. The end is upon us. Flee!
The facebook monopolization of the internet is almost as ridiculous as SouthWest Gas customer service.
I have and will always refrain from that god awful extension of high school that is facebook, regardless.
j
I’ve now read your paper and looked at your classifieds. I’m not sure you ought to be making fun of anybody
Do tell, George W. If you can tell me one thing, other than provide a depressing look into the human psyche, that the Star’s comment section does better than our paper, I’d love to read it.
I’m glad to see that right wing nuttiness will not dominate the comments section of the ADS anymore. I would occasionally wade into the muck over there, but it almost made me think that Bill, and Roy, and Elroy, and George and their nasty comments were a majority opinion.
Another funny thing, is these guys would often reveal that they live in Marana. They would point out how superior Marana is to Tucson. Really? Can Ina and Thornydale even hold a candle to downtown Tucson? Ha! LOL!
BTW, thanks for putting “Obama as Hitler” avatar” in quotes. Guess you guys read your Facebook comments.
Sure makes it easier for the NSA when everything on the internet goes into the Facebook database instead of being spread out through millions of independent comment sites.
The ranters and ravers from both the left and the right are on Facebook also. Some of the names and faces will change, but much of the rhetoric will remain the same.
The only potential positive I see is that there is a much stronger libertarian presence on Facebook, which actually may get some people to think, rather than just knee-jerk react as their handlers tell them.
It’s nothing more than a money-saving move on the Star’s part, although it probably won’t save near enough to keep that paper going much longer.
sign into facebook. become a preschooler again. whine that you want friends. does the star realize that facebook slugs do not buy newspapers? get a coupon, like us on facebook. get a life, i’ll shop elsewhere. FB, the center of the idiot generation, where you get a badge for being a putz.
Why would anybody put their privacy at risk by having a FB acct in their real name?
Having been tombstoned twice at the AZ Star — the last time permanently when I called Antenori a neanderthal (They seemed REALLY afraid of Frank when he was accidentally in the Leg – and I apologized to Neanderthals everywhere) and since I boycott Facebook as an intrusive, untrustworthy waste of my time, this is no change as far as I’m concerned…
Odd that a newspaper: The ADS, while claiming to be “local,” would outsource its comment process to a multinational corporation: Facebook.
Kind of like a room full of cockroaches. You turn on the lights and everyone runs off in different directions.
Wait, someone got blacklisted for calling Senator Antenori a “neanderthal” while other commenters regularly referred to Congressman Grijalva as “the toad” and worse? Clearly the Star was less than consistent in filtering the comments.
Funny thing is, Tom, both are adequate descriptions, and both of the gentlemen(I use that term very loosely) are about as worthless as t**s on a boar.
I love boar milk!
And since the story about the commenting change is still near the top of the Starnet home page, the comments have continued to be logged.
Over 800 at this point: http://dynamic.azstarnet.com/comments/view…