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February 17, 2020 10:02 pm  #1


Toronto Star Revives Online Comments On A Limited Basis

It's been four years since readers have had a chance to weigh in on the Toronto Star's articles online - although it was always possible on their Facebook page. Now they're bringing the idea back, but only for registered users, which means you will be able to see a person's real name - although the full surname may or may not be published. 

From Public Editor Kathy English's Friday column:

"At this point, still treading carefully, the newsroom audience team that manages Conversations, along with an outside team, is opening a limited number of articles for commenting, with the expectation that the feature will expand as the newsroom comes to better understand the commenting community. Currently, some 12 to 20 articles across all sections of thestar.com are opened for commenting among registered users each day." 

 

February 17, 2020 10:08 pm  #2


Re: Toronto Star Revives Online Comments On A Limited Basis

There was a lot of abuse of online comments generally - I recall a few incidents on the Toronto Sun and Globe and Mail's page where trolls deliberately appropriated the names of real people and posted extreme comments in an attempt to make them look bad. This sort of hoaxing was not uncommon and I think was one reason most mainstream sites now require some sort of registration or verification for people to be able to post comments.