Kandel's Stuff

latimes:

L.A. Now is our breaking local news section. Why are we switching to Facebook comments? Jimmy Orr, the managing editor of latimes.com, explained when we began rolling out Facebook comments in March: 

Having our site built on different content management systems provides some hurdles. One is our commenting system — there’s not much uniformity.

Some of our stories require registration; some do not. Some of our comments appear right away, while others languish for a moderator to approve or deny. Still others disappear after one day, never to be seen again.

It’s not a good practice to make you wait to see your comments. It’s also not a good practice to have your comments vanish from an article. All issues we’re dealing with.

We need uniformity. And reader engagement is a high priority. Can we get some uniformity? What’s the best way to get there?

Facebook has a new commenting system that we’re interested in. It allows for “right away” commenting while providing an authentication system no one else can match.

Both are important. By allowing comments to go up in real time, it provides instant interaction among readers. By requiring a Facebook registration, it will cut down on the mean-spirited, profane and sometimes useless responses because one’s friends will also see the comments in their newsfeeds.