We're debuting something new today: Facebook comments. Instead of our old system, which let people choose between anonymous commenting and registering for a username on our site, we're now asking commenters to use their Facebook identities to post comments. (Feel free to give 'em a spin on this post to see how they work.)
What this means:
1. No more anonymous commenting. We hope this won't turn anybody away who's been leaving zesty, on-topic comments for us. We KNOW it's going to get rid of masses of unseen spam-trolls, to which we are glad to say, "Sayonara."
2. You'll have to have an account on Facebook (or Yahoo or AOL, which have entered into agreements with Facebook) to comment on our site. A few years ago, this would probably have been a dealbreaker for us. But Facebook is where people are online -- over half of Americans over the age of 12 are now on it. You know what they say: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
3. When you comment, unless you un-check the little "Post to Facebook" box, your comment will show up on your Facebook wall, where your friends will see it. Don't want your Facebook buddies to see all your comments on our site? Un-check the box, and the only people who will see your comment are the 12,000 people who visit our site every month.
Why we're doing it:
1. We've always wanted comments and real names to go together, just like they do in newspapers' Letters to the Editor sections the world over. But it's too much work for us to check every new user registered on our site to make sure they're using their real name. People tend to use their real names on Facebook. It's not a foolproof system, but it's pretty good.
2. When you share our stories on Facebook, your neighbors read them. For better or for worse, Facebook is our third biggest traffic driver, right behind Google searches and people going directly to our website. We think this will help us get the word out about our quest to bring daily online news to the rural Catskills.
3. Spam. We've got a lot of it, and we're getting more as our readership grows. You don't see it, because our sophisticated spam filters (read: real, live, overworked Watershed Post editors) catch it and delete it before it gets published. We think this will help.
4. Facebook is bigger than we are. If we're going to require users to login in order to comment -- and, we're realizing after a year of allowing anonymous comments, Login Is Our Friend -- we'd rather go with a system that most of our readers are already using than force people to sign up for usernames with us in order to participate. We love it when people sign up for a username with us, and we still want people to sign up so they can do things like promote their events on our free regional calendar, claim their businesses in our directory, etc. But having to sign up for a new username can be a barrier to participation.
We know some of you worry about Facebook and its seemingly unstoppable quest to conquer all the personal information in the free world. We do too. But for better or for worse, social media is where Americans are sharing news, talking about what's happening in their communities, and connecting with their neighbors. We can't afford not to be part of that.
Want to read more? Check out this article weighing the pros and cons of Facebook comments on TechCrunch, an online tech news outlet that also switched to Facebook comments recently.
And, please, let us know what you think. (As always, we're at editor@watershedpost.com, if you're not Facebook-enabled.)
