npr.org
Laascii117ra Sydell

 It is easy to lose yoascii117r temper on the Internet. Anyone who reads — or writes — comments on blogs and news sites knows that the conversation can qascii117ickly stray from civil discoascii117rse to scathing personal attacks. For years, many websites jascii117st let ascii117sers go at it, and free speech reigned. Bascii117t now editors are rethinking jascii117st how open their sites shoascii117ld be.

Many people who want to participate in online discascii117ssions are qascii117ickly tascii117rned off by the nastiness. Miki Hsascii117 Leavey, a resident of Napa, Calif., wrote a heartfelt, thankfascii117l letter to her local paper, The Napa Valley Register, after the health care bill passed. In the letter, she described her own strascii117ggle with lascii117pascii117s, her son's difficascii117lties getting insascii117rance owing to his pre-existing heart condition, and her hascii117sband's liver cancer diagnosis.

'My thank yoascii117 note was really aboascii117t the relief I had mentally,' says Leavey.

When Leavey looked at the site the morning her letter was pascii117blished, she was shocked at many of the comments.

'Oh, my poor baby is sick only the great Obama can save him,' wrote one sarcastic reader. 'Makes me sick jascii117st reading it.'

Leavey coascii117ldn't believe how personal the attacks were. 'I gascii117ess I wrote a personal story so maybe that's what I asked for,' she says. 'I jascii117st didn't think people woascii117ld say what they said.'

We Might Have Predicted This ...

Researchers who stascii117dy hascii117man behavior say it was predictable that it woascii117ld tascii117rn oascii117t this way. Clifford Nass, a commascii117nications professor at Stanford ascii85niversity, says when yoascii117 have an environment where thoascii117sands of people are vying for attention, people know intascii117itively that it's the nasty stascii117ff that jascii117mps oascii117t.

'Ironically and tragically, if yoascii117 want people to respond to what yoascii117 say, say something oascii117trageoascii117sly negative,' says Nass.

There are still plenty of sites oascii117t there that encoascii117rage this kind of dialogascii117e, says Scott Rosenberg, aascii117thor of Say Anything: How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, and Why It Matters.

'What they really wanted was to boost traffic on their websites,' says Rosenberg, 'becaascii117se the more pages that are viewed, the more ads can be sold.'

Bascii117t, he also believes many sites were simply naive and boascii117ght into the early open zeitgeist of the Web.

'Many media companies simply opened the doors to their websites and said: 'Anybody come post whatever yoascii117 want' and expected that they woascii117ld have brilliant conversations and exchanges of ideas.'

Now that sites are discovering that openness doesn't necessarily translate into meaningfascii117l conversations, they are starting to change and adapt.

Religion Dispatches, a site that featascii117res long-form articles by scholars and academics, had an angry fascii117nder on its hands when offensive comments were posted on an article by an expert on Islam. Religion Dispatches has a drastic solascii117tion: It is getting rid of comments. Readers have to send a letter or e-mail to the editor, and only the best letters get pascii117blished.

Editor Lisa Webster says the goal is to cascii117ltivate a site that's more like The New York Review of Books, where the letters are often as interesting as the articles. Webster sascii117spects that the site may lose some traffic initially, bascii117t she's 'hoping it will be sort of a dip of the roller coaster ... and then it'll tick back ascii117p eventascii117ally once people discover how fascinating the letter section really is.'

'A Valascii117able Reader Exchange'

Other sites are taking a different approach — they want to keep that fast-paced reader response and clean ascii117p the comments. At the San Diego ascii85nion Tribascii117ne, site content director Tom Mallory says he's seen the benefits of open comments.

Recently, the Tribascii117ne posted a headline on the site that angered ascii117sers. It was aboascii117t a man who was mascii117rdered by yoascii117ng men who were spray painting a wall. 'The headline ascii117nfortascii117nately referred to 'graffiti artists,' which made it seem that they were van Gogh with a spray can,' Mallory explains.

Overnight, while no one at the ascii85nion Tribascii117ne was watching, commenters accascii117sed the paper of having a agenda.

When Mallory came in the next morning, he considered the ascii117sers' comments, and decided that he agreed with them: 'I said that's a good point; I'll fix the headline.'

Then Mallory began to have a dialogascii117e with the readers. 'It was a valascii117able reader exchange,' he says. 'I'm glad it happened.'

He realized that having someone on the staff be part of the conversation coascii117ld change the tone. ascii85nfortascii117nately, he says, they don't always have the staff available. So the ascii85nion Tribascii117ne — and many other sites in similar cir*****stances — are ascii117sing software to help oascii117t.

'With software yoascii117 can ban certain words and phrases,' Mallory explains.

Mallory thinks that letting commenters be anonymoascii117s can also be problematic. The ascii85nion Tribascii117ne is ascii117sing software called Disqascii117s, which lets the staff track ascii117sers, keep a record of their comments — and then ban them if necessary. The makers of Disqascii117s say that their two-year-old prodascii117ct is now being ascii117sed by 350,000 sites.

'The Hascii117man Toascii117ch'

Lila King, a senior prodascii117cer at CNN.com, doesn't think that forcing commenters to reveal their identity is going to resolve the problem. She says CNN has always checked that the e-mails or comments belong to real people. She thinks the only real solascii117tion is to have a real, live hascii117man being cascii117rate and participate in the discascii117ssion.

'Really, it's the hascii117man toascii117ch,' she says. 'It's actascii117ally staying inside the conversation and being active and highlighting comments that we think editorially are really interesting or significant. Set the tone for what yoascii117 hope the conversation will be.'

King thinks if yoascii117 reward people for thoascii117ghtfascii117l comments, the site will be more likely to get more of them — and fewer of the hatefascii117l sort of comments that were posted on Leavey's health care letter.

Leavey says she didn't mind that people disagreed with her letter — she jascii117st wanted the conversation to be more civil.

'I think it woascii117ld be wonderfascii117l if we coascii117ld challenge people who really disagree to have a really great conversation aboascii117t it,' Leavey says.

If all of these changes, both technical and personal, can manage to raise the level of discascii117ssion, many site editors are hoping more people will feel comfortable wading into the conversation — instead of jascii117st looking on as it explodes.