{"id":2866,"date":"2021-04-14T06:45:18","date_gmt":"2021-04-14T06:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uberlin.co.uk\/on-blogging-why-we-turned-off-comments-uberlin\/"},"modified":"2021-04-14T06:45:18","modified_gmt":"2021-04-14T06:45:18","slug":"on-blogging-why-we-turned-off-comments-uberlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uberlin.co.uk\/on-blogging-why-we-turned-off-comments-uberlin\/","title":{"rendered":"On blogging: Why we turned off comments – \u00fcberlin"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On blogging: Why we turned off comments<\/h3>\n

by James Glazebrook<\/span><\/h4>\n
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The more observant of you will have noticed that we\u2019ve turned off comments here on \u00fcberlin.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maybe you found you couldn\u2019t enter a competition<\/a>, because I\u2019d forgotten to turn comments back on in those rare cases where we still allow them. Perhaps you were particularly incensed by the latest thing this expat\/hipster\/douchebag\/gentrifier\/all-of-the-above had written. Or you might just have been wanting to tell us how much you love us, but couldn\u2019t. Well, here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n

Firstly, and most obviously, internet comments are infamously terrible. Sure, most of our commenters have been very supportive and positive, but a minority have split hairs, gone on inexplicable tangents, ranted, singled us out to blame for the (inevitable) changes happening to Berlin, and one even told us in no uncertain terms: go home.<\/p>\n

The main reason for this shittiness is that people aren\u2019t accountable when they\u2019re anonymous. If no one knows who you are, you can be as hateful, reactionary, incoherent and misinformed as you like.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of course, we ask commenters to provide their names and email addresses, but we have no way of verifying this. Even if we used something like Facebook login to verify people\u2019s identities, the Zuckerberg dodgers could use their invented FB names to shroud themselves in semi-secrecy. Besides, even if we could achieve total transparency and accountability with comments, we\u2019re not sure that we should be insisting that people, especially Germans, share their personal data in this way.<\/p>\n

So, given a choice between anonymous comments and no comments, we went with the latter.<\/p>\n

Another reason for switching off comments is that we\u2019re no longer focused on producing content that provokes comment. Depending on your perspective, we used to be great at\/notorious for hilarious\/reductive observations\/stereotypes about Germans and Germany<\/a>, and at times, we\u2019ve been guilty of full-on<\/a>\u00a0trolling<\/a>. These days, however, we\u2019re more interested in showing off Zo\u00eb\u2019s beautiful photos<\/a> of places, people and their dogs<\/a>, and getting to the heart of what inspires the creatives who call Berlin their home<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is great content, and we think it\u2019s very shareable, but it\u00a0doesn\u2019t require your input. If you like something, great – feel free to share it with others on Twitter, Facebook, email or whatever. If you don\u2019t like it, that\u2019s fine too – just look away.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And that brings us to the final reason we turned off comments. We received too many comments like \u201cthis comedy piece on going to a German supermarket doesn\u2019t discuss the impact of LIDL\u2019s pricing policies overseas\u201d, which could all be translated as: \u201cI\u2019m annoyed that this article isn\u2019t about something else that I\u2019d rather be reading\u201d. I found myself arguing with these people, then trashing their comments (as they were about an entirely different subject than the article, they weren’t relevant), and then deciding: we don\u2019t need this.<\/p>\n

As content producers, we accept the fact that we\u2019re doing all this for free. We run \u00fcberlin for love, not money, and the fact that our content is kostenlos<\/em>\u00a0allows it to reach far more people than it would have in the days before a free, open, democratic(ish) Internet. The problem with this is that people don\u2019t always value what they get for free. And if it isn\u2019t exactly what they wanted to see, they\u2019ll be sure to tell you. I wonder if the editors from Lawnmower Monthly<\/em>\u00a0receive letters saying \u201cDear Sir\/Madam, I bought your magazine and was disappointed to find absolutely no photos of monkeys riding motorcycles\u2026\u201d?<\/p>\n

The point is: everyone\u00a0absolutely has the right to their\u00a0opinion. They\u00a0just don\u2019t have the right to make\u00a0people listen to\u00a0it.<\/strong> We spent five years building this site, filling it with content and growing its readership. If you don\u2019t like something on the site, by all means tell the Twitter followers you earned through your own hard work – hell, tell us<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0But you don\u2019t get to take the megaphone out of our hands and use it to broadcast your own opinions, while hiding behind the mask of anonymity.<\/p>\n

Hence (with a few exceptions<\/a>): no more comments here on \u00fcberlin. In the month or so that we\u2019ve been without comments, we haven\u2019t missed them at all. We still get plenty of feedback via social media, and we’re always thankful for that. If you have any comments about this post, or anything else we’re doing, hit us up on\u00a0Facebook<\/a> \u00a0and Twitter<\/a>. The (on-site) comments are dead; long live the (off-site) comments!<\/p>\n

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