HP + fb =NIGHTMARE
It's been a little over a week since Huffington Post unleashed its new commenting format. As you know by now, I am a liberal, stay at home (for now) mom of 2, so Huffington Post has been a site that I visit often. I have been a "member" for 5 years or so. They have articles based on many different subjects as the newspapers of yesterday did; and one can even vent, or comment on any of the posts. One is given a username which at one time gave the reader/user a good degree of anonymity. Not too long ago, they changed the format so that the user needed to disclose at least part of their name in order to leave a comment. Huffington Post did this in order to discourage users from abusing the anonymity part, from saying anything threatening or offensinve. Completely understandable.
However, I often wondered what constituted "offensive". I never used four letter words, or made any threats, still from time to time, my comments were deleted- always frustrating. Especially when I saw comments that had foul language or out and out called someone a name that was less than complimentary.
Now, Huffington Post is posting their users' comments straight to their users' Facebook accounts, and with a check, one can post one's comments from HP to one's Facebook home page. Personally, I get enough stuff on my facebook home page. I get notices from my friends, photos, of their latest adventures, which I like, and then notices from sports teams, music group, or philanthropies that I have "liked" and "followed" or "joined". THAT'S ENOUGH. Hard enough to get to the latest from my best friends across the country, without my HP comments showing up.
My main issue with it though is THAT IT IS NOT SAFE. Now with HP the comments are in "Facebook Conversations". Even though one does not have to post them to their Facebook page, on Huffington Post, where once there was a somewhat abstract username, there is the user's full name, usually a photo of them, (whatever they use for their Facebook profile photo) . So a Huffington Post user just needs to click on a photo and it goes to that person's Facebook page. It doesn't seem like it the full profile page, but most will give you a photo, the person's name, and the city where they live.
How many more headlines do we need to prove there are enough crazy people out there that this is just not a good idea?
I know not everyone reads Huffington Post, but it just goes to point out how careful we need to be with each social medium. Especially as they are linked to one another. If you are a reader of HP or any news site and are not happy with their decisions, contact them, or one of their writers or contributors. Can't hurt- suggest we all do as much as we can to let the people behind the curtains know what their readers think.
For the safety of us all.
However, I often wondered what constituted "offensive". I never used four letter words, or made any threats, still from time to time, my comments were deleted- always frustrating. Especially when I saw comments that had foul language or out and out called someone a name that was less than complimentary.
Now, Huffington Post is posting their users' comments straight to their users' Facebook accounts, and with a check, one can post one's comments from HP to one's Facebook home page. Personally, I get enough stuff on my facebook home page. I get notices from my friends, photos, of their latest adventures, which I like, and then notices from sports teams, music group, or philanthropies that I have "liked" and "followed" or "joined". THAT'S ENOUGH. Hard enough to get to the latest from my best friends across the country, without my HP comments showing up.
My main issue with it though is THAT IT IS NOT SAFE. Now with HP the comments are in "Facebook Conversations". Even though one does not have to post them to their Facebook page, on Huffington Post, where once there was a somewhat abstract username, there is the user's full name, usually a photo of them, (whatever they use for their Facebook profile photo) . So a Huffington Post user just needs to click on a photo and it goes to that person's Facebook page. It doesn't seem like it the full profile page, but most will give you a photo, the person's name, and the city where they live.
How many more headlines do we need to prove there are enough crazy people out there that this is just not a good idea?
I know not everyone reads Huffington Post, but it just goes to point out how careful we need to be with each social medium. Especially as they are linked to one another. If you are a reader of HP or any news site and are not happy with their decisions, contact them, or one of their writers or contributors. Can't hurt- suggest we all do as much as we can to let the people behind the curtains know what their readers think.
For the safety of us all.
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