I'm listening. I appreciate the feelings. I hope those who've used their freedom of expression to excess recently are also listening and understand that less can be more. That includes those who delight in personal insults to score cheap shots and elicit further angry responses - this is poor form, bad for the site, and I vote accordingly.
I also have to consider the site mission, its history, and how best to preserve the kind of vibrant debate it can foster, which is somewhat endangered elsewhere - in part because it is not treasured, and takes time to moderate, and in part because (within our community) many other large furry forums discourage critical comment, being run (and censored) by individuals or organizations that are either the topic of such criticism, or which does not wish to be seen as supporting it.
Free debate sometimes breaks out into chaotic flame wars - which, for those who remember, was no stranger to alt.fan.furry and the like - but they're relatively rare, and even our resident roo has at times expressed support. My main concern is for what would be lost.
I've seen plenty of good anonymous and account-free comments, and without an open comment form, I suspect many would not have taken the time. The average rating for anon comments is 2.95; below the global average of 3.32, but roughly equal to that of a cross fox or a patchwork rat (and there are many registered users who have attracted far lower averages over the years).
Because of this, I feel the poll kind of misses the point - there are issues with commenting due to a collection of behaviours which are not restricted to anonymous users, and for which registration and accountability does not always prove an effective deterrent. What it would help with the most is spam; but that has a relatively trivial impact, and we have several other mechanisms for dealing with it.
I'm also aware of the huge number of people who just read the article and skip the comments, such as changeofspace below. Not even because they're bad comments - just because they don't have the time. In a way this is not a bad thing (after all, we take more care over stories, and it means that for them all the sound and fury signifies nothing), but what might help engage these users if they do drop by is pulling out some of the better comments in the longer debate - showing off the system at its best, rather than at its worst.
To an extent comment fading and folding already does this (best appreciated after a few days... or years) but it's more intended to decrease visibility of content which doesn't contribute. I had an idea along those lines a while back - basically, a small block with one-line summaries of a few comments above the main list in proportion to the count and vote confidence. Such debates come along irregularly, though, so the utility - and hence my motivation to attempt to code it - has been minimal.
I'm listening. I appreciate the feelings. I hope those who've used their freedom of expression to excess recently are also listening and understand that less can be more. That includes those who delight in personal insults to score cheap shots and elicit further angry responses - this is poor form, bad for the site, and I vote accordingly.
I also have to consider the site mission, its history, and how best to preserve the kind of vibrant debate it can foster, which is somewhat endangered elsewhere - in part because it is not treasured, and takes time to moderate, and in part because (within our community) many other large furry forums discourage critical comment, being run (and censored) by individuals or organizations that are either the topic of such criticism, or which does not wish to be seen as supporting it.
Free debate sometimes breaks out into chaotic flame wars - which, for those who remember, was no stranger to alt.fan.furry and the like - but they're relatively rare, and even our resident roo has at times expressed support. My main concern is for what would be lost.
I've seen plenty of good anonymous and account-free comments, and without an open comment form, I suspect many would not have taken the time. The average rating for anon comments is 2.95; below the global average of 3.32, but roughly equal to that of a cross fox or a patchwork rat (and there are many registered users who have attracted far lower averages over the years).
Because of this, I feel the poll kind of misses the point - there are issues with commenting due to a collection of behaviours which are not restricted to anonymous users, and for which registration and accountability does not always prove an effective deterrent. What it would help with the most is spam; but that has a relatively trivial impact, and we have several other mechanisms for dealing with it.
I'm also aware of the huge number of people who just read the article and skip the comments, such as changeofspace below. Not even because they're bad comments - just because they don't have the time. In a way this is not a bad thing (after all, we take more care over stories, and it means that for them all the sound and fury signifies nothing), but what might help engage these users if they do drop by is pulling out some of the better comments in the longer debate - showing off the system at its best, rather than at its worst.
To an extent comment fading and folding already does this (best appreciated after a few days... or years) but it's more intended to decrease visibility of content which doesn't contribute. I had an idea along those lines a while back - basically, a small block with one-line summaries of a few comments above the main list in proportion to the count and vote confidence. Such debates come along irregularly, though, so the utility - and hence my motivation to attempt to code it - has been minimal.