Comments Are Back On
As I mentioned previously, comments have been unavailable on the site for the past few weeks:
There was a rise in casual negativity that felt too close to how social media feels, i.e. a place where even well-meaning folks are not incentivized to think “this isn’t for me” and move on without comment. I understand that the pull of treating this social space just like other social spaces is strong, but we’re trying to do something different here…
In the meantime, I’ve updated and refreshed the community guidelines; if you are going to participate in comments threads here, I would appreciate you reading it. (Quick reminder: you need to be a KDO member to comment.)
Instead of going over the guidelines here, I thought it might be helpful to share some examples of what I would consider good comments & threads:
👏 Margaret M’s comment on The Lies and Falsifications of Oliver Sacks (it’s a good thread in general); an excerpt:
I’m a doctor. It’s my second career; I was a book editor before. Naturally, when I decided to go back to school to pursue medicine, I read all sorts of books by doctors about taking care of their patients. Obviously, I read everything he wrote (for a general audience, anyway).
This is such a betrayal.
🙌 Stuart Kern’s comment on Core Memories With the Swiftie Dads; an excerpt:
Got time for a lengthy Worst Dad Ever Goes to See Taylor Swift story?
2018 Taylor Swift tour. I take joy in what brings either of my two daughters joy. Happy to take my 17 year old daughter to see Taylor Swift. It involved snakes for some reason.
Months in advance she camps out online and scores two tickets. Days out she decorates a t-shirt. Concert day she gets home from school, paints her face. We sit in traffic for two hours to get to the stadium. She floats across the acres of parking lot, grooving on the scene. We get to the gate.
“These tickets were for last night.”
👍 Both discussions about Pluribus — perfect posts for folks to express opinions. And so many people thoughtfully disagreeing with me and each other with kindness & respect.
😊 The thread about the “devilish” 2025 game. Quick comments work here — everyone understood the vibe of the thread.
🎯 Dalton’s comment on Playing Boards of Canada on a DEC PDP-1 from 1959:
Somewhere there is a Venn diagram of all the things I like, and this is right in the middle of all of it!
It’s always OK to express your enthusiasm and appreciation for a link or comment.
I also pulled some examples of feedback from social media that I don’t find helpful in contributing to a good discussion. None of these have a “yes, and…” vibe:
👎 These replies to the CIA deleting the World Factbook:
But then, did we ever trust “facts” published by the CIA?
I’m pretty sure half of them are functionally illiterate anyway so they probably don’t see the point.
Perfectly fine posts for social media but they wouldn’t work on KDO; they’re casually negative and don’t improve the conversation for others. Discussing the trustworthiness of the CIA, the propaganda aspect of the World Factbook, and the incompetence of the current regime are all worthy topics of discussion, but you’ve gotta work harder than these drive-by dunks.1
🤦♂️ This reply to The Strangers’ Case:
Many would say that Shakespeare and Sir Thomas More were unoriginal. This same guidance is found from 1,600 years earlier in Luke 10. Many know is the parable of the Good Samaritan.
Again, very normal social media post. Further context/reading is good, but you can tell us about the Parable of the Good Samaritan without dinging Shakespeare for unoriginality.
😱 This reply to the news about canned juice being discontinued:
OJ is liquid candy anyway, which is why juice sales are stalling. I just wish it weren’t towards the horrid paint thinner that is kombucha…
Self-explanatory, I hope.
Anyway, I hope you get the gist and that I haven’t completely scared you off from commenting here. Really, the vast majority of comments here are great and I’m glad this facet of the site is back.
- That said, the tone of my post about the Factbook was not at all positive or constructive: “The CIA has deleted the CIA World Factbook (a popular almanac about the countries of the world) from the web. Fuck this. All these assholes do is pillage & destroy.” (And because of that tone, I probably would not have turned on comments for that post — not a good conversation starter on my part.)↩
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This right here - it's the spirit of the community. Couldn't have said it better. You only get these kinds of contributions on kottke dot org.
This is what we should all be striving for, people. 🤠
Thanks for articulating your intentions so well. These phrases in particular stand out to me: "...casually negative and don’t improve the conversation for others..." and "drive-by dunks".
This kind of comment is so dispiriting to read on social media. It's just disagreeing or being cynical for the sake of looking clever. If you did it in a real-life conversation you'd sound like a jerk.
I've been reading your site for more than 25 years now. I 100% have your back if you ever moderate comments according to the above logic, including my own.
Many of the things you flagged as "bad" examples above are also dispiriting to me. This is why I've largely exited social media -- I often felt dispirited while using it, and I don't want to feel that way here, on a site that has been a very frequent pleasure for me for a long, long time.
Well, this post made me doubt myself about some of the stuff I wrote in some of my comments. You know -- I have my personal areas of expertise and experience and when I feel I can give some perspective or critique, for instance about typography or graphic design, that may come out a bit harsh, I am afraid. But then — there are basic principles a designer should know and adhere to, and is it really a bad thing to scold someone who flunked those basics? Please Jason, enlighten me!
I'm not going to get into specific comments on the site, but maybe where you say "scold", perhaps you could substitute "teach" or "inform"? Engaging in this way doesn't always come easy but can be more rewarding. As I said in the community guidelines, your role here isn't to set anyone straight, but you can offer expertise and support.
Or, in the immortal words of Idina Menzel, you can always just "let it gooooooo". 😉
Ooooookaaayyy… I will do the 'count to one hundred thing' in future. : ))
+1 to all of this, but also there's some rascally part of me that wants the vibe of this specific comments section (and only this one) to be ironically casually negative.
Yeah, you would say this. 🙄
Well done.
I fully support your decision. I love you site and as an oasis in a harsh online world, feels nice to keep it as a curated nice place.
This is my first comment - I appreciate this post so much, as it has made me consider my use of other social media sites and what I get from "clever" comments that are flippant, drive-by, and have that dunking quality, and how that effects my level of good faith participation in real-life and online community over the long term. I think participating in this site might going forward be able to fill some need I have to read comments in online forums to relax- I've had that need since 1996 when I got on Usenet, and it's pretty wired in at this point. But it used to be that I would know the names in the fan community space and so had trust in the funny flippant comments because it wasn't the only participation of those commenters, and there was a basic level of trust. I will wrap it up here, thank you again for the post!
From the guidelines, I think this is really valuable to know:
On KDO, I like to think of this as a text chain with friends more than a comment section. The "Yes and..." idea mentioned in the guidelines too is helpful to think about!
I also want to say, because I couldn't on the original post, that I've been playing the Daft Punk x Justice mix non-stop since you posted it. It's amazing it's never been done this well before.
I haven’t commented in a while. No reason really? Just haven’t felt compelled to I guess.
Anyway just came her to say this post is god’s work. I really wish more online communities devoted this level of care and articulation into what it means to be a member of the community.
Small bespoke online communities FTW!
This whole positive thread, and this comment in particular, has Just Now made me realize that FTW = For The Win, not F&#% The World. Oh dear. I feel I should now look up all online acronyms to make sure I am not also misinterpreting them?
Thank you for being so thoughtful about this, Jason.
I appreciate this course correction. The Kottke.org comments section is one of my very favorite on the web, and I see the intentionality and labor that goes into keeping it that way!
I had the weird experience of reading this while not logged in, which mean that I couldn’t see “favorites,” and I thought to myself, “Oh, Jason turned off favorites for comments, that’s smart.” But then I logged in to leave this comment, and saw they’re only visible to members. But that misperception made me wonder: would removing favorites from comments shift the incentive structure towards “people with something to share conversing” and less “quippy jabs for popularity.” (As currently built there’s literally a “popular” sorting function for comments.)
As one data point, I’d confess that my own dopaminergic impulses often compel me to check back on my own comments here on this site, to see if they got any likes. Does that (admittedly insecure) pattern always encourage me to bring my highest self?
I value this reflection so much! I can see myself and my own dopaminergic parts pulled toward the faves too, and I wonder how that might affect what I say or how I say it.
My feeling is that generally the comments that get faved are the best ones. But worth keeping an eye on.
Tell me I'm not the only reader who looked through to make sure that I wasn't in the bad examples list!
But then wait, is commenting that I always secretly worry about bothering someone online itself a kind of unhelpful post?
I remember an incident some years ago when I was facilitating an IRL group and had to gently lecture a few participants who were engaging in a form of gossip which I thought was creating a toxic environment in the group. To my surprise, the most kindly, levelheaded person in the bunch came up to me afterwards to apologize if case he had engaged in any of the behavior I had mentioned. I reassured him, of course, but ironically (or perhaps predictably) the most problematic person just walked by me, seemingly oblivious that I was more-or-less talking about him. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't handle that situation the same way today but it was an example of how people who listen openly to constructive feedback are often the ones who have their act together—precisely because they've built a habit of taking feedback to heart.
Online communities, like IRL ones, can be messy but I'm glad that JK is putting the effort to make this a special place.
Thank you Jason, as always, for the care you put into this site and cultivating the kind of community you're seeking.
While reading through the community guidelines, I noticed a similarity to the "the five questions to ask before you speak" from Buddhism. They're sort of less about being nice (though that's in there, in a way) and more about just actually skillfully communicating.
Might not be where you were going with any of this, but my mind made a connection and it seemed worth sharing. Here they are, as I understand them:
1. Is it true?
Not "true for me" but actually verifiable.
2. Is it beneficial?
Will saying this actually help the dialogue?
3. Are the words chosen with goodwill?
Intent part one: Is this framed in a way that you think will land with the recipient(s)?
4. Do you intend these words to benefit the recipient(s)?
Intent part two: What do you want get out of saying this? To share, or to prove? To connect, or to win?
5. Is it timely?
Even if everything else checks out, relevance to the overall dialogue is important. Is this the right moment?
A few links. Everyone describes them a little differently. Old stuff's like that sometimes I guess.
Really, really love the thoughtfulness you’ve put into comments and for reaching for something better for the site and from us as readers.
“Drive-by dunks” is a phrase that’s going to fester.
I don't often comment myself, but I'm very happy the comments are back on, and I'm grateful to Kottke (and the community) for the work being done here to keep this a positive space.
I am reminded of this post which I read over a decade ago in which the author draws an interesting and helpful distinction between your reaction to something and your opinion. "If you’re still having a hard time seeing my distinction between reactions and opinions, here’s a helpful rule of thumb. Your reaction doesn’t require anyone else to be wrong."
Ran across this comment today (the TikTok one, not the BS post) and thought it was a perfect example of the type of typical social media reaction that I don't want here:
😂
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If you feel like this comment goes against the grain of the community guidelines or is otherwise inappropriate, please let me know and I will take a look at it.
Hello! In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.
Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.
Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions. Or try logging out and then back in. Still having trouble? Email me!