Every time they shut down comments I think "wow how sensitive you are." I mean you know those a-holes irl that just can't handle an opposing view/funny comment/etc....they EXPLODE. They quickly lose friends, alienate themselves, possibly lose their jobs, have difficult times making friends/having healthy relationships etc...
They become known as 'difficult' people. But the people that CAN take a joke, something in jest, or an opposing view are conversely seen as level headed people. Understanding, kind, intelligent, educated, worldly, and have a good scope of what they SHOULD be worried about.
I also think, did some young dumb people take over the company, and got all pc? "Comments are mean therefore we must get rid of them." Thin skin indeed. I also know about capitalism. And yeah there are server costs to run comments. But it's text, Text docs barely take up any room. And for a big company it's not that big a deal. Like a store adding merchandise to their store, they just cram it in. They don't pay extra rent, etc. It's all included in their operations.
They look at the comments, all negative think it's bad for business and get rid of it, WRONG MOVE. Reminds me of one of my first crummy jobs working at a mall. The IDIOT boss commented on why people did not spend more money at their store. WELL it was because not only did they get rid of the seating areas IN the mall but also IN their store. People felt, oh I don't know, UNWELCOME!!!! So they leave. Some malls are wising up and offering lots of free crap to customers to KEEP them in the mall and keep them shopping. Why so many malls are suffering/shutting down. They eliminate 'extra costs' stupidly. And just end up shooting themselves in the foot. IDIOTS!
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Popcorn Kernel (2368)
8 years ago
The cost of a comments section is not in the server space, or even the bandwidth. Comments sections increase the page views because people will keep coming back to read replies to their comments, compared to an article without comments, you just read it once, then there's no reason to go back to it. And more page views means more ad impressions.
The cost in the manpower to moderate it. Now granted, the community managers are usually the lowest paid people on the company payroll, they make a fraction of an engineer's salary, but it's still usually the first thing they cut when they are trying to meet a budget. They'll lay off people making 40k a year and hire more engineers for 200k a year.
because...logic
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thecritic (191)
8 years ago
Good points. I feel like they always target the little guy, since that is how the world works. A company loses money? Should the people at the top limit themselves to 5 yachts instead of 10? Nope, let's just fire the people at the bottom. So that before when we had 10 people working somewhere, we make one person do all the work. Treat them like crap, yell at them, blame them that they are not working hard enough, etc...
Yes the problem with business/capitalism, is that it is based on slavery still. Reduce cost (have people do tough jobs for next to little pay) increase profits (more yachts for them). It's pretty sick, that I see people who actually work harder and get paid less. Sad. I know people will say 'well that's to motivate people to get an education bla bla bla...' well, not all people are gifted with a brilliant mind. You remember school 90% of students could barely add!
Reminds me of one of my first crummy jobs, there was an employee that bragged that at their other job they worked less and were paid more. I'm sure that you need more education to be an engineer than a moderator. And sure reward educations. But we have to remember that good help is hard to find. Imo a moderator's job is tough to sift though comment after comment and throw out the insane sh!t. It's also kind of tough mentally to deal with such disgusting stuff sometimes. I know I see some bad things, even with moderators. What would things look like without them!? I think you should get paid for the work you do. And yeah for the education you have, your 'worth'. But yeah I agree it's just stupid.
I also think the firing has to so with 'the other' mentality. The people at the top love to rub elbows with their rich friends. So easy to look down on the less paid people and get rid of them. Sometimes I have the opinion that the higher ups are friends and they don't get fired for this reason....
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Popcorn Kernel (2368)
8 years ago
So that before when we had 10 people working somewhere, we make one person do all the work.
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YUP!
First step is lay off all permanent full time community manager positions and hire "independent contractors" to replace them, which don't get any benefits or PTO or health care.
Second step is cut the contractor moderation/community manager positions in half (or reduce their contracted hours), and make the remaining people just absorb the extra work. (for no additional money)
Third step is cut all community managers and delete the comments/forums sections.
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