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.
posted December 19th 2008 12:09AM
Can you post exactly how you blocked comments from people that irritate you during your work day?
I sit next to a real jerk at my job and I would LOVE it if i could shut her off too.
Thanks!
In all seriousness, comments or not I'd still come back for the articles.
Hey Engadget...can we do away with the complete blurring of low/lowest ranked comments? Sometimes it's fun to read other peoples idiocy, and sometimes people are wrongly low ranked when they've actually done nothing to detract from a discussion.
I used to like engadget until now, after this post. After hearing some of the crap Josh just said such as "commenting on this site is a privilege, not a right." and "If those commenters who wish to keep up this childish garbage continue, we'll just switch all the comments off. All the comments. Off." Engadget, you are so annoying sometime, honestly this post makes me not want to come on this site anymore, and I might not (I'm sure anyone wouldn't care). But engadget has been becoming more annoying lately. ESPECIALLY ever since Ryan Block left! He was probably one of the only reasons why I continued to stay on this site. Can we get Ryan back please?
And by the way, I would love to see you switch all the comments off. All the comments. Off. I honestly wouldn't care, and I bet a bunch of other people. But I also think you wouldn't do it, because it's only going to hurt you guys. So let's see engadget, turn off ALL the comments, please I'm asking for it!
Personally I'd prefer it if you just banned offenders, the current proposal, whilst not a million miles away from mine, is what is so sad about most authoritian bodies: the majority get inconvenienced because of a very small minority... All you need now is a bunch of rival-site zealots to band together and cause havoc on Engadget with the sole intent of getting comments banned for all on a site they don't even like... If something like that occured, the 'punishment' would be misplaced...
Your ranking system is self-moderating... There are a-holes all over the place... Add a 'report this post' button and let that bring the offence to the moderators attention to take action against IP adresses...
Now imagine how much worse this exact article would be without the comments that have followed it...
I personally don't get why everyone thinks Engadget writes too much about Apple. I think it only seems that way because there is nothing to counter the Apple stories. They could write about Microsoft just as much, but Microsoft doesn't produce hardware like Apple. And when they do, like with the Zune, Engadget is all over it.
We shouldn't expect Engadget to go "Oh look, more Apple news. But we have too much already so..."
Spot on. It's a fact that Apple is a prime figure in the tech industry, and they're regularly in the news. It's understandable that many people get sick of the regular Apple posts, but hey, that's what you've got to live with.
Sorry you have to go through all this, Engadget. Apparently decency is no longer in fashion.
Your can be assured that this'll always be my favourite gadget blog, and I'm quite sure this is the opinion of the silent majority.
Pardon the typo, should be "you", not "your".
Aww man, thats weak that those comments were deleted. :(
Turn off the comments and you'll find all your loyal readers drifting to Gizmodo, and all your ad revenue disappearing. Just sayin'.
Joshua, you are most definitely handling the whole situation in a very wrong way. Has engadget not matured enough to handle the diverse nature of the 'internets?'
Unless you guys deleted the really "hateful" comments on the storm article, I didn't think it was that bad. In fact I enjoyed them. Didn't satisfy what I come here to do, which is catch up on gadget news. But sometimes that's a good thing too.
You seriously can't say you don't understand why people think you are Apple fanboys? I even thought your offices were based in Cupertino, actually the number of posts covering a single Apple event would actually physically require you to be situated over there. But I don't hate you for it, nor does it imply that I can't get my gadget fix from all your other articles. It's about taking the good with the bad. Just like your commenters. Lucky for you, there are more good commenters than "hateful" ones.
Grow up guys. And way to turn this into "news" that I am sure will get posted on other blogs.
Guys, (editors), you just need to completely ignore the bad comments. There will always be stupid people who will whinge and complain just for the sake of it; it's your decision just to ignore them and continue on with your top-class tech blogging.
Good for you Engadget. I'm to the point I don't even read the comments anymore. Most commenters are rude and spiteful and don't contribute to the article in any way. Many people feel that since they hide behind a keyboard they no longer have to be kind and courteous to their fellow human beings. I find it similar to road rage, sort of a web rage, and it's wrong.
Well i don't know if anyone happened to look but the storm is a huge success without the endorsement of engadget or many other popular technical reviews. Verizon still can't keep them in stock at many of their locations and with blackberry's commitment to software updates its just going to get better. People just need to know that Engadget while a great site has it's natural biases personally i believe that they have slant to the mac side of things as many have pointed out, just take it with a grain of salt. I am a Microsoft junkie, but even then i don't agree with everything that they do. I still like coming here because of the humor and news. Remember just because it doesn't get reviewed well doesn't mean it's not a hit or that the reviews are right. Multiple video games can attest to this.
The site administrators need to wake up and realize that having an audience is a priveldge, not at right. I for one, will be reading this site less because of it. I have better things to do than return to a site that treats it's entire audience like children because of a few unpleasant comments.
How come when Engadget restricts speech on their website it's a "good move," but the same tech community populated with Liberal ass-sniffers thinks the government is "like, totally evil man!" when something like the PATRIOT Act is invoked? Just asking... XD