Tyee Comments Close this Weekend

At about 5 p.m. tonight, access to The Tyee commenting system will close.

Comments will still be visible and readable, but you won't be able to add anything new, except here at the bottom of this story where we'll keep a window into the new system open.

In short, enjoy your comment-free Canada Day weekend! Or just interact with us on Twitter (@TheTyee).

Know that your existing user name and password won't work on Monday. But don't worry. It's simple to create a new one (if you haven't already) -- just go to the bottom of this page, click the box that says Leave a message..., and then click the D icon to get started. That's the simplest way. You can explore the Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ log-in options later if you'd like.

As we mentioned in a story published last Monday, we're doing this because the existing commenting system was old and costly to maintain. In the comment section after that story, which used the new system, we got a great response -- 118 comments at last count, most of which were enthusiastic about the change.

As we expected and hoped, there were also a few concerns. Those centered mainly on questions about privacy, identity, and the pace of change in the digital age in general.

We decided to put these, and a few other questions, directly to the folks at Disqus. Disqus is the third-party service we decided best fit our needs. (More on that decision, here) Below are the responses we got from Steve Roy, vice-president of marketing....

On online identity

One commenter emailed us to say he was done commenting, that nothing short of revealing everyone's true identity would solve the problem of toxic debate, trolls and sock puppetry (more on these evil puppets below).

Still others complained there was too much exposure, that their profiles showed more about them than they were comfortable with, like what they had been commenting on other sites that used the Disqus system.

One of the reasons we chose Disqus was because it offered a sliding-scale of identity options that allowed users to choose their own comfort level.

Here's what Roy had to say:

"Disqus was founded on the philosophy that choice of identity is fundamental to freedom of speech. We don't think you need to trade your identity for the ability to speak up. We fully support the use of pseudonyms..."

On privacy:

Tyee readers mentioned, in various ways, feeling a sense of discomfort around giving a third-party their email addresses, as well as having other users see their comments on other sites that use Disqus. It seemed that's what stuck in popular commenter Ed Deak's mind.  

Here's what Roy had to say about privacy:  

"Disqus does not sell user browsing activity or email addresses to third-parties. We maintain that information as a normal course of delivering our service to users and publishers (e.g. for article recommendations, notifications, digests, etc.).

"Disqus also does not collect demographic information. We simply ask for a username, password and email address. We maintain one of the lowest barriers to participation across the web.

"We’ll also soon be introducing the ability for users to keep their commenting activity private. Comments will still be public to anyone on the site where you left them, but users will no longer be able to follow your account or see your activity through your Disqus profile.

On the pace of change in the digital world:

The pace of change in the digital world is accelerating. Upgrades and changes happen at the speed of software, which sometimes can feel like the speed of imagination. While The Tyee is not exactly known for rapid technology changes,  we know that people don't experience us in a vacuum and that learning new things -- especially things already mastered -- can be frustrating.

Or, as commenter annecameron put it when we warned everyone about the changes to our commenting system:

"WHY is it every 'improvement' means I have to putz around trying to navigate the technology?

"grumble grumble, razzle frazzle, I'm not good at technology..."

Here's what Roy said about Disqus and the pace of change:

"The core Disqus experience you see now you can expect to see for the foreseeable future. The new Disqus launched last summer was built for the long-haul. We’ve been at this longer than anyone else, so we fully realize the frustration that comes with major and frequent changes to basic features. We built this version of Disqus to avoid that headache. You’ll see improvements around the edges but nothing radical.

"One of the things we’re proudest of is how low we keep the barrier to participation. It’s been a key to our success so we’ll continue to keep it simple for users."

On the tone of online conversations

One of our hesitations around moving to a new system was that the new tools might inadvertently negatively affect the robust discussion that takes place here.

Here's how Roy responded:

"Disqus doesn’t play editor or moderator. That’s part of our philosophy. And discussions by themselves online and elsewhere will run the gamut from boring to enlightening and from civil to raucous.

"What we do find though is that Disqus gives both publishers and readers a better environment that makes better discussions more likely and more possible. The sites that get the most out of Disqus treat it as a community operating system of sorts. It’s there to facilitate discussion but also connections among the people there."

On trolls and sock puppets

In a related vein, we asked Roy how Disqus approached sock puppetry (acting like you're someone else in order to advance a certain agenda) and trolls (deliberately baiting other online commenters in a deliberate attempt at disrupting conversation).

Roy's thoughts:

"Again, a big part of this is the focus on community. Communities are the best self-policing function possible. The role of people solves what technology cannot.

"On the technology side, Disqus has a 'quality quotient' built in. It’s designed to float the best comments to the top, turn down the not so great comments, and flag users who repeatedly post lower quality comments. We do this with a set of algorithms that analyze user reputation, other users' reaction to comments, and the text content itself. But it’s not a pure popularity contest either. Less popular voices don’t get silenced but offensive ones do get flagged for the publisher to moderate.

"Since moving to this new system in the current Disqus, we've seen abuse reporting decrease by almost 80 per cent and moderator actions decrease by about 25 per cent per week. This means more of the good stuff is driving more discussion while the bad stuff is not able to ruin it for everyone. As a result, we're seeing Disqus users spend more time than ever in discussion with an average visit lasting over six and a half minutes."

So, there you have it, folks! Any thoughts? Please add them below. Otherwise, we'll see you Monday when the entire site switches to the new system.