Revamped Comment Buttons + New Ways To Buy Techdirt Credits

from the fixing-things-up dept

If you haven't noticed, we tend to do things a bit differently around here sometimes. While other sites are looking at ways to ban you from reading their site if you use an ad blocker, we've made it easy for people to block ads on Techdirt if they feel that the ads are a problem. And while more and more sites are turning off comments, we've always believed that the comments on Techdirt are integral to the site and a huge part of the experience here. Over the years, we've added a few things here and there to keep the comment section vibrant -- including the "insightful" and "funny" buttons, which let you vote and help to highlight the most insightful and funniest comments (and we highlight the best ones every week in a separate post).

A few years back, we also added what we call "credits" -- which can be used to tag any particular comment as the "first word" or "last word." This would help to really highlight a particular comment by reposting it on top of the comments or beneath the comments, with a highlighted background and presentation, designating it as a comment you really wanted people to see. This feature was mostly only available to our supporters who bought various blog perk subscriptions, such as the Techdirt Crystal Ball (which also lets you read some of our stories before they're available to the wider public), the Techdirt Watercooler (which lets you join our insider chat) or the full Behind the Curtain package that lets you really see a bunch of posts in progress, as well as join the insider chat.

As you may have seen (since we turned it on last night), we've revamped the comment buttons a bit, in particular, opening up the "first word/last word" system. Here are the key changes:

• You can now just buy Techdirt Credits directly in the store, rather than getting them with a package or other purchase. There are bulk discounts as well, so buy a bundle of them. So this is a great way to both get a cool feature for yourself that helps promote good comments -- and to support Techdirt at the same time.
• You can now take credit for giving someone a "first word" or "last word." In the past, no one (not even me) knew who was giving comments "first word" or "last word" honors. Now, there's an option every time you promote someone's comments to first word or last word status, you can let the world know you did it by checking the box that says "put my name in lights, too!" This is optional, but something we felt was worthwhile. If you're promoting someone's comment, take a bow yourself as well.
• The buttons have been revamped. The old "word" voting buttons were getting a bit stale, so the look has been totally refreshed.
• The "first word/last word" buttons are now in the voting bar with the others. Even though these aren't "votes" in the same sense, it made sense to put them all in the same place.

So, go ahead and check it out. Buy some credits, promote some comments, take a bow, and enjoy the comments section....

We're still working on some more features as well (for the comments and for, well, basically the rest of the site). So stay tuned...

Filed Under: comments, first word, last word

First Word, Last Word And Letting Our Biggest Fans Help Shape The Conversation In Our Comments

from the hop-to-it dept

With the launch of our new Techdirt Insider Shop, one of the new features we've enabled on the site is something we're calling First Word/Last Word, which you may have noticed appearing on the blog. The feature allows Techdirt Insiders with credits to help highlight key comments as either "The First Word" (on top of all the other comments) or "The Last Word" (beneath all of the comments, even if other comments are added after). You can designate one of your own comments, or feel free to designate a truly awesome comment from someone else.

Because this is such a new feature, I wanted to discuss a little of the thinking behind it. Despite blogging for well over a decade, I'm still amazed by how much controversy there is over blog comments. Some people insist that they're completely useless. Others spend many hours of their day engaging in discussion and debate in the comments. There are various attempts to try to "improve the quality" of comments out there, including banning anonymous comments, heavily moderating comments or doing things like having editors highlight the best comments. Others have integrated third-party platforms to manage comments, such as Facebook or Disqus. Gawker keeps pushing the bleeding edge with a series of commenting experiments that try to increase the importance of comments while decreasing the number of comments that actually get viewed.

Over the years, we've taken a very open approach to comments. We don't require a login to comment (though there are benefits to having one). We don't require people to identify themselves at all. And despite the default assumption some have that anonymous comments are bad, we quite regularly find that comments from anonymous users are some of our most insightful and funniest comments. To that end, we've always focused on trying to do more to highlight and encourage good behavior -- such as highlighting the comments voted most insightful and funniest, both with badges on the comments and in our weekly summaries.

With the First Word/Last Word feature, we're trying to take all of that a step further. We've seen how a single trollish commenter can sometimes (not always) derail an interesting conversation by getting in early and saying something completely brain dead, then watching (probably with laughter) as the thread disintegrates. Our expanded Crystal Ball may take care of that in some cases by giving insiders more early access to kick off the comments. But, not everyone's going to be able to rush in and be first. With "First Word/Last Word," Insiders with credits can help highlight one or two of the absolutely key comments on a story and put them in places of prominence to help define the overall conversation.

This is very much an experiment (and like all experiments could flop completely). But what fun is it if you never take chances? We've trusted our community for many, many years, and here's another attempt to trust those who become Insiders to help curate the absolute best comments for everyone to see. We hope you'll take part and help us develop an even more interesting and compelling comments section.

You can get your own First Word/Last Word credits at the Techdirt Insider Shop. Most purchases include at least one credit, and subscriptions like the Watercooler Package and the Behind The Curtain Package include a cache of credits that replenishes on a monthly basis.

Filed Under: comments, community, features, first word, last word, techdirt