If you’ve been anywhere on the internet, you know that any public forum can get pretty bleak. Abandon all hope, ye who comment here. The rise of anonymity on the internet has done away with a lot of the consequences of being deliberately hateful and provocative. It’s never been easier to be a troll; so why on earth would you want a public comments section on your consultation/engagement/website?
The good news is, your comments section doesn’t have to resemble the nine circles of hell.
It comes back to the principles of digital thinking, and how important these are to facilitate an open, democratic process in the digital age. Putting our comments into the public domain allows us to feel like our voice is one of many, and is being heard, rather than deposited into a black ballot box, never to surface again.
There will always be negativity, and detractors, no matter what we consult on. With a bit of digital thinking, and some good facilitation, we can better ensure that this will be done in the most constructive way possible.
Step 1: Slow it all down
One of the major pitfalls of most public comment sections is the ability to comment instantly, with no guarantee that we’ve read or viewed anything beyond the title – or other comments. Without a solid frame to put our thoughts into, we quickly descend into chaos.
Asking questions provides this frame. We need to ask good questions to receive good answers, and good comments. It makes people think about what they’re saying and anchors the discussion to the topic at hand. As a bonus, we get better, more specific responses from our consultation.
Step 2: Respect people’s privacy
Anonymity is both a vice and a virtue, it can allow us to publish whatever we like, with little consequence. On the other hand, we can retain our privacy and have our say on sensitive situations and topics without exposing our identity.
We should never publicly post users’ contact information without their permission, but putting names next to comments creates a sense of ownership and discourages flippant and inflammatory responses. We should give our users the choice: allow them to remain anonymous if needed, but don’t make it the default when hosting comments publicly.
Step 3: Get quantitative
Comments and discussion are great, but they’re even better when they’re backed by numbers. It’s often the loudest, most passionate voices that are noticed.
They’re halves of a whole. Without the numbers, it’s hard to gauge a consensus from the outside: the loudest voices are heard the clearest. Without the comments, numbers don’t feel as human. It’s easy to call them into question when we can’t see the people behind them. Providing the stats alongside the comments shows us the bigger picture.
Step 4: To moderate or not to moderate?
When we facilitate a constructive digital experience for public comments, we find that putting comments into moderation limbo isn’t really needed. Sometimes though, a profanity or two might slip through the cracks. It’s not the end of the world, and they can easily be censored while leaving the rest of the comment intact (if appropriate – we have no tolerance for racism, sexism, or discriminatory comments).
It does require us to read through the comments and moderate ‘retroactively’. Ultimately it’s worth a little extra time to provide the best experience: there’s nothing better than writing a thoughtful submission, seeing it up on the website, and feeling your voice heard.
Publicising comments as they come in does require a little more work, and the right technical solution, but it’s worth it to create an environment where we feel like our opinions matter.
