We wrote earlier this month when the New Haven Independent stopped allowing its readers to comment on stories starting Feb. 7. According to Nieman Lab, the site has resumed its commenting system effective Feb. 21.
The New Haven Independent is a Connecticut news website.
The newspaper stopped hosting comments because comments were becoming “nasty,” as we wrote. Going forward, commenting will be allowed given certain “changes” to the New Haven Independent’s guidelines. For example, readers “can comment anonymously” but must “register with a real name” and e-mail. Comments were moderated prior to publication to begin with, but going forward, they won’t be published “night and day.” Instead, the newspaper will have two staff members “screen and publish comments six times each weekday (not on weekends).” One other interesting, and possibly controversial, change:
“Comments with factual allegations—what you heard in a bar, what nefarious deeds people are up to in local agencies—will be forwarded to reporters for possible use in stories, not published in the comments section. Better yet, send such information directly to reporters. An ‘E-mail the author’ button appears at the top of every story.”
Read all the guidelines here.