A note on comments

You may have noticed that comments on the recent Storm post have been turned off. If you're wondering why that's the case, it's because a handful of folks posting on that story are being rude, disrespectful, reactionary jerks. To be clear, we can do that on any and all posts. Commenting on this site is a privilege, not a right -- and this is an exercise to demonstrate that. Lately we've noticed a lot of belligerent commenters acting like they own the place (the place being Engadget). News flash -- you don't. We love the participation and input from our commenters -- the readers of this site are what make it so great -- but when the normally intelligent discussion devolves into nasty, hate-filled rants... well, we have our limits of tolerance. If those commenters who wish to keep up this childish garbage continue, we'll just switch all the comments off. All the comments. Off.

So think before you type, and try to be mindful that the people who work here are human beings trying to do their job, not lightning rods for your bad vibes.

[Hife @ Dec 19th 2008 12:14AM]

No words to express how happy this makes me...

[Hife @ Dec 19th 2008 12:18AM]

P.S.
Anyone know where that picture is from? I swear I used to have toys or something from the series. What is it???

[Jim Halpert DM @ Dec 19th 2008 12:18AM]

Same here...but it makes me wonder if you can really go a day without childish garbage...or what crazy person out there will make it their one and only goal to get comments turned off.

[Dave @ Dec 19th 2008 12:22AM]

It from Dino-Riders, easily one of the awesomest toys from the 80s.

[Rob @ Dec 19th 2008 12:26AM]

Dino Riders! Man I haven't seen that since I was a little kid. I use to love that show, and all the dinosaur toys.

[water.and.sand @ Dec 19th 2008 12:34AM]

Dino-Riders! I'd forgotten what they were called, but when I got those toys for my birthday... when I was 5 or 6 or so... it was one of the happiest birthdays ever.

I hope I can feel like that again someday...

(looks up Dino-Rider toys on eBay)

:)

[LordVesper007 @ Dec 19th 2008 12:37AM]

I voted you up!

And I fully SUPPORT this post and the intent behind it. You whiny little bitches need to move to Gizmodo if Engadget isn't to your liking.

[nerdtalker @ Dec 19th 2008 12:42AM]

Engadget is getting puzzling. If they're referring to the likes of Clak, Phanbouy and (worst of the worst) Mr. Professional, that's one thing. It's another thing entirely to insult your commenting readership and chastise them. That, and lumping us into one big bad category. Big. Bad. Category.

If anything, this just empowers them more to see if they can get you to disable all comments. No offense, but I think just about anyone can call your bluff on that one. A blog isn't a blog without comments, sorry. The only thing childish here is giving those commenters that kind of attention and that kind of power.

Just remember that even though you're technically a "blog," you still are a de-facto source of tech news. Objectivity implies due course of dialog between readers, and editors (traditionally a letters to the editor page). Comments certainly are that functionality. Turning everything off only undermines yourself.

[Nomi @ Dec 19th 2008 12:42AM]

Although I personally haven't commented on Engadget's biases...I can see where a lot of people are coming from...

[A.C.E.R. @ Dec 19th 2008 12:47AM]

So when I saw this article I thought damn, I must've missed some hardcore racist, sexist evil nazi posts in that Storm article.

But then I read it and all I could see were posts calling Engadget out for being the tools that you are.

Is this really what you've sunk to Engadget? People call you whiny bitches in another article (which I disagreed with) but then you post this up AND PROVE THEM RIGHT!!! -sigh-

[Temple @ Dec 19th 2008 12:58AM]

Hope Engadget authors practices what it preaches. Meaning no subjective 'rants' against products or biases, but well thought-out stories that people come here for.

[Bryant @ Dec 19th 2008 1:02AM]

Engadget.

You guys are great. Some of the featured posts and exclusive content you guys bring up are top notch (better than any other gadget site out there, to be honest).

However, you guys need to learn to listen to commentators. That's why comments are here: encouraging discourse.

As a blog, Engadget is entitled to endorse whatever it wants in its views. However, more often than not, Some of you guys at Engadget are putting a slant in favor of some pretty bad products (Macbook Air is a good example) just because you can. When readers call you guys out on it, you guys blatantly tend to ignore them.

Your readership makes you; your readership breaks you. As an administrator for a rather large Microsoft enthusiast site, I can back this up with a firsthand account. However, it seems like the near-guaranteed readership has begun to get to your heads. Readers will leave when they think sensationalism is creeping into blog posts, and that's exactly what's happening to Engadget, although with the added step of your readers letting you guys know beforehand through hate-filled comments.

This is what happens when you ignore feedback. Let it be a lesson to you guys to listen to your readers. Otherwise, I'm perfectly content with the "privilege" to leave a comment disappearing. It's not a privilege if there's no benefit. The end result is a loss for you guys at Engadget if you don't learn to listen up.

I hope you guys can pick up on this. It's for your own good.

-Bryant

[Izzy @ Dec 19th 2008 1:11AM]

@Bryant

I think you meant commenters as we are not commentators. I myself think that all negative posts that have nothing to do with the actual product should be banned as well as the semi-anonymous postings. But that's just a little bit of my fascist side coming through.

[labrats5 @ Dec 19th 2008 1:21AM]

Great news. You should also crack down on those bastards who make unrelated replies to the first comment just so it gets read earlier.

Crap.

[Josh Marshall @ Dec 19th 2008 1:18AM]

I must say, I'm slightly disappointed with this article.

Not for the obvious reasons -- I fully support the sentiment behind it. However, I read Engadget ravenously, and I was not aware of the offensive posts until I read this article. In other words, this article has created a story. Furthermore, the posts were made by apparently unintelligent (and nearly unintelligible) posters... credence should not be granted to those who so desperately seek a platform for attention.

Engadget has become incredibly successful -- this is simply a symptom of that success. I would expect this type of childish commenting behavior to increase, rather than the alternative. You will know you have reached complete market saturation when you are certain you have comments written by semi-evolved creatures from Pluto. (Simply look at YouTube for evidence.)

The standard Engadget article is clever, entertaining, and informative. It is also unashamedly written by people, as opposed to much news reporting which is written by people trying to hide their personal bias in bland language. This is exactly why people read the site, and exactly why the immature use it as a tool to troll. Instead of drawing attention to those people without appropriate personal pursuits, take their comments as signs of market penetration, thank your stars that you have this great platform for reaching that large of an audience, and forget it.

In summary: Engadget should not negotiate with terrorists. :)

[Bryant @ Dec 19th 2008 1:24AM]

@Izzy
Same difference according to the dictionary. I just went with the first word which I thought suitably described what I meant.

As for banning unrelated comments, who knows. I just don't want a system similar to what Gawker has for its subsidiary gadget blog.

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Dec 19th 2008 1:26AM]

I totally agree. I am always on the side of the Engadget staff and am very annoyed by the those Engadget Haters (I mean trolls) that hate the site and it's writers so much it just makes me wonder why they even waste their time here in the first place? And keep coming back.. daily.

[Patriks7 @ Dec 19th 2008 1:29AM]

Well this is really sad to see.. But I think if Engadget would close all comments, then they will loose a lot of visitors, because lets face it, some are here to only make comments (many of them being good!).. So since Engadget has such a big crew, can't you just get a couple of them to delete posts a couple minutes after the post is posted? Or add some words with which you can't reply, like Apple, iPhone... since those are the ones that start these wars.. just an idea..

[Alex Keen @ Dec 19th 2008 1:59AM]

Comments are part of what make a blog a blog. I looked at the storm article and I didn't see much of anything at all beyond the usual. I think this is just a virtual flexing of endgadget's muscles and nothing more...Although I must say this site likes to report about everything Apple seems to do, newsworthy or not.

[Hamburgler @ Dec 19th 2008 2:08AM]

Seriously engadget? maybe the "jerks" are right. dont cry about it, do something about it.

[David @ Dec 19th 2008 2:11AM]

I think a good system would be.. to ban retards... really!
Let's say... well we already have a ranking system, and most stupid comments get low ranked all the time.
So what if like.. let's say if you get a certain number of posts lowest ranked, then you get like a temporary ban.
It COULD be abused, but as long as we the viewers/commenters do a good job of properly ranking comments,
I think it could work out to help weed out the trolls.
What do you guys think?

[CaramelZappa @ Dec 19th 2008 2:52AM]

Bryant-

I logged in just to plus your post.
And to tell you I did. I couldn't agree more.

[Hotrod @ Dec 19th 2008 3:13AM]

Ditto.

The fanboy/apple haters comments have become so obnoxious, that I visit enadget less and less, and just wait for them to release a podcast (which are surprisingly very funny)

[rosewood @ Dec 19th 2008 5:05AM]

Just shut it down. Shut it all down.

[loocas @ Dec 19th 2008 6:03AM]

I couldn't have thought of anything prior to typing this post.

Am I getting banned? :/

[Christian Martin @ Dec 19th 2008 7:20AM]

@Ari:

Wanna bet? When I first began reading Engadget, it was during a mass comment freeze for the same reasons.

[yakapo @ Dec 19th 2008 8:06AM]

your going to turn off comments b/c of a few prepubescent kids posting hate?

I dare you. Unless you guys do this for free I assume you need some revenue. "privilege" are you kidding me?

Turn off comments and half or more of your visitors will migrate elsewhere.

[musback @ Dec 19th 2008 8:19AM]

Agree. All they need to do is just DELETE the lowest ranked automagically. So nobody can respond to retards.
And Ok, I must say, Engadget is pretty apple-flavoured which I don't like, but you don't see me squandering my diarrhea all over the site whenever I disagree on a fact. Just ignore articles which are beyond your field of interest and leave the interested people alone. It's hard to moderate... You have a ranking system... just USE it!

[yakapo @ Dec 19th 2008 8:26AM]

It's my assumption that the majority of the "hate" posts are from people that are desperate for negative attention.

Now they can really feed their need... "I took down the engadget posts!" me ftw!!111

Collective punishment might work in athletics and in the military but I think it violates the rules of war...

[Cade @ Dec 19th 2008 9:47AM]

I still have these toys.. I saw the, the last time I was at my parents house! this is great! really brings me back.

[DASH @ Dec 19th 2008 10:23AM]

--- Nice Engadget, my comment got deleted. Let me try this again . . . don't worry, I took out the word "douchebags" this time. ---

Josh,

I understand that you are a little upset, but maybe you should have sat on this post a little longer and thought about your decision to publish it. You have just added gasoline to the fire and made yourself and Engadget look like a bunch of whining tools. I remember hearing stuff like this from a kid down the street when I was 10. It went something like this:

Me: I shot you with my laser gun, you're dead.
STDtS (Stupid Tool Down the Street): No you didn't.
Me: Yes, I did. You're dead.
STDtS: No, I'm not. You didn't even have a laser.
Me: Yes, I did.
STDtS: No, you didn't. I am not going to play with you if you don't play right.
Me: Okay, I'll go home then.
STDtS: You can't go home. I'll tell my Mom on you.
Me: Uhh, okay. Tell your Mom. I'm going home to play Super Mario Bros. 3.
STDtS: I don't want to play with you anymore anyway. Go home.
Me: I already said I was going to . . .
STDtS: No! I told you to go home! Playing lasers at my house is a privilege not a right!

Welcome to journalism. Not everyone is going to agree with you. The mere act of writing is courageous.


All successful newspapers are ceaselessly querulous and bellicose. They never defend anyone or anything if they can help it; if the job is forced on them, they tackle it by denouncing someone or something else.
--- H. L. Mencken, US editor (1880 - 1956) ---

[macguru @ Dec 19th 2008 1:14PM]

Maybe now we can finally put the HD DVD / Blu-Ray fanboy insults to rest!
Ha!

[Ari @ Dec 19th 2008 11:48AM]

@Chris Martin:

I remember that. But I don't remember a whiny post. Engadget is a technology news blog. Censoring comments is one (albeit wrong) thing, but reprimanding us in a post is another, which has apparently alienated a lot of readers. We are all aware of the stupidity that runs rampant on this site. We are not blind to it. A post that links to the "problem post" and chastises all readers alike is distasteful, and frankly unprofessional.

You're right, we don't own the place; you can tell more and more that AOL does...

[RedGhost @ Dec 19th 2008 12:28PM]

And here I was looking for an insightful topic about Dino-riders.

[grumpyOldMan @ Dec 19th 2008 3:18PM]

Nice pic reference with DinoRiders!

While part of me totally agrees with you (honestly I'm only interested in the Comment Royale when the Apple geeks battle it out with the Microsoft nerds), another part of me is saddended that the rest of us are punished because some people are rude and their momma's always told them they're special.

Apologies for the run-on sentence. Here's a Dino Rider Intro movie to make up for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpuhLkh358Y

[chezzo @ Dec 20th 2008 8:16AM]

Honestly guys, the storm post was one of the stupidest, bitchiest "news" articles I've ever seen, and this post isn't making me feel any better.

[greatcaffeine @ Dec 19th 2008 12:15AM]

Perhaps an audio preview feature should be implemented so people know when their comments sound silly?

[Alex @ Dec 19th 2008 12:29AM]

That's obviously worked on youtube! Haha...


On another note, I think that after reading our comments, engadget just got scared that Verizon would stop sending them phones!

[Josh @ Dec 19th 2008 12:37AM]

http://xkcd.com/481/

[1234321 @ Dec 19th 2008 12:44AM]

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[aaaaaa @ Dec 19th 2008 12:57AM]

well of coarse Engadgets just like any other business I'm not saying they are, butt hey could be getting $ on the side from apple. But on the most part they do good on most things and because nothing is pure is why you use more then one source.

[blah @ Dec 19th 2008 3:54PM]

@1234321
what's that supposed to be?

aside, i kinda agree with engadget that some comments should be sensored
but i also disagree cause the comments are what makes engadget engadget and not a random blog

myself for 1 read engadget to read about losers who want to be first, ask if whatever has any relation to the mba or any other apple product, ask if graphics cards can play crysis, can it blend and the likes
it's pretty amusing

[Zeth Ethereal @ Dec 19th 2008 12:16AM]

oh noes! we made Engadget mad! :(

[Nerd Ferguson @ Dec 19th 2008 12:16AM]

you lose.

[finite_rings @ Dec 19th 2008 12:16AM]

that's a sick graphic

[Shaka @ Dec 19th 2008 1:18AM]

OMG guys do you see me? Im totally pwning that dude with my fricken lazer beam.
Pew! Pew! Pew!

[Samboini @ Dec 19th 2008 2:30AM]

Thier point went in one ear and out the other - I was too busy looking at dinosaurs with lasers!

Pew pew!

[Joseph @ Dec 19th 2008 4:57AM]

pew pew

[dg @ Dec 19th 2008 11:13AM]

pew pew!

[Stu @ Dec 19th 2008 12:17AM]

Haha - brilliant stuff guys.