This town ain’t big enough for civil discourse AND garbage fire

The comments section is our modern day Wild West, in that there is maybe a teeny bit of gold out there, but it’s mostly desolation and terrorizing self-appointed vigilantes and fire.

^Scientific representation of what a comment section looks like (link)

Many news outlets have resorted to simply shutting that shit down, but Melody Kramer, a Nieman Fellow/former NPR digital strategist /all around brilliant media thinker just published “Here are 27 ways to think about comments,” which is worth a read to see where the future of comments is going + where it could be -- maybe one day, in a castle by the sea, where trolls have big hair and guard rickety bridges and nothing else? Here’s hoping.

More: If you like Kramer’s work, I also suggest her Medium post: “64 ways to think about a news homepage,” as well as her own TinyLetter!

Also s/o to this NiemanLab article, “Who is posting comments on news stories, and why do they do it?” for the subject line inspo.