Problem Solver Jon Yates has received several e-mails from online readers upset that the newspaper disabled the comments section on the web version of Sunday’s column about Jennifer Fastwolf.
Why were the comments halted?
Editor Jane Fritsch, who was monitoring the Tribune’s website Sunday morning, said some of the comments Saturday night and early Sunday morning were deemed inappropriate and removed individually.
She decided to disable the comments permanently after someone posted personal, identifying information about the individual who had published Fastwolf’s picture against her will.
Fastwolf initially wrote to What’s Your Problem? because she felt she was being bullied. Allowing comments that threatened someone’s safety seemed hypocritical, Fritsch said.
“Just to take the high road, I took them down,” she said. “We don’t have to play the game he’s playing.”
Both Fastwolf and the Problem Solver agreed.
The real question is why the Tribune has comment boards at all.
At least the spam has migrated to the Sun-Times at the moment.
Or, they could have removed the personally identifying info and continued to allow people to post opinion commentary. But the Trib doesn’t like to spend an extra penny or two on web moderation. As a result, the online content loses the interactivity and relevance of a really good web-based newspaper.