As the Manging Editor for User-Generated Content at WRAL.com and the person who hires the moderators who handle comments on news stories, I see an amazing value in user comments. What I’ve learned is how much users value recognition. I post several comments of the day on the homepage of my online community and people even love that. When I posted a blog telling users that our main anchor wanted to know how they were conserving water in the drought, the comments were through the roof. I respond to a tremendous amount of users via feedback forms and e-mails and its the personal touch that wins them over. If they are a part of what you do in any way, you gain a little more trust. Ask yourself this. Do you need a real name attached to an awesome comment?
I will add though that I’ve asked users to amend their screen name if it’s inappropriate. And if they don’t, I will ban them. Okay, I’m done..really.

After doing a recent experiment asking people to submit photos of an event through a Flickr group (will blog about this soon), I think there are a few lessons that could be applied to comments, too:

1. Give people time. Most people aren’t on daily or continuous news deadlines.
2. Tell people what you want. I left it open and got some good stuff and lots of grip and grin. That was fine, but it meant more sifting for me.
3. People want to be part of the story. This was a feel-good type event, and nothing people would shy away from, but everyone who I told about the chance to contribute thanked me for it. No one was resentful.

I think this would work with comments, especially with good moderators and real names.

Pat: This is a good issue. A place where print standards may soften to capture the best of online debates. My emphasis is on “best” of one. More thoughts here: http://tinyurl.com/5lqe3n

The interesting thing I notice with online comments versus “man on the street” quotes lies in the reader’s ability to go find the comment and verify, comment back or introduce another idea.

The traditional print reader might not appreciate online handles appearing in a beat story, especially if they’re immature or obscene. However if the reader doubts or is interested in whatever ILikeToasters or Hellokitties left as a comment in addition to what was printed, he can.

I dare the same reader to get a response or extra commentary from John Doe — the man on the street.

Let me also add this: Don’t underestimate the interaction among users. We have people who meet up on specific stories DAILY just so they can engage in debate. Look closely at your comments. This could be happening. If it is, consider presenting opposing views. Again, I’ve learned that you never know WHO is behind that comment. There are some very smart folks among us.

The Visalia Times-Delta runs a daily box with web comments on the opinion page, and on few occasions have also run comments with stories (either as a breakout box or a mention within the article).

My view is that as long as it’s clearly labeled from the web, readers are smart enough to take anything they say with a grain of salt. I think posting comments in print is a valuable way to get feedback and encourages online participation in the same go.

The only issue we see is whether or not to fully correct people’s grammar and net lingo (such as @jared: ur comment FTW!) if there’s an intelligent and important point behind the comment that not all print readers would understand.

And Jared, BTW, I did mean that, FWIW. lolz

I should make it clear that I’m not talking about printing vulgar or poorly written comments. I’m talking about printing thoughtful comments.

How about this situation: You write a blog entry about the new budget for a school district you cover. A bunch of people leave comments on the post and some of those comments are outstanding. Unfortunately, most of the posters didn’t leave a real name or e-mail for you to contact them with.

A print editor, however, wants a story about the new budget, complete with thoughts from “regular people.” Is it OK to take some of those thoughtful comments you already got online and put them in the print edition?

If “Teacher Jan” leaves a great comment, does it make her comment less compelling because she calls herself “Teacher Jan” instead not “Jan Smith?”

@Pat

It’s probably worth asking whether people should be allowed to leave totally anonymous comments, i.e. without at least an email. Ideally, a commenting system would have at least something equivalent to most blog comment forms, if not a database-backed way of tracking each person’s comments throughout the site. Here’s an example (pulled first comment on first story): http://lasvegassun.com/users/mschaffer/

I think the better we can nail down who a person is, the better we’ll be able to avoid sock-puppetry and abuse (stop it on the web, and it won’t be a print problem). At the very least, we should have systems in place that make it easy to both spot trolls and follow up with thoughtful commenters.