I am an avid poster on comment sections on sites like IGN and Destructiod, even Yahoo that I disparage every chance I get. More and more though, I am seeing on websites an increase in modding, and even just not having comment sections anymore at all. The reason they say, is the "toxic comments" that ruin the experience for people. I won't disagree comment sections on any site can have a lot of nonsense in them, a lot of flaming, a lot of trolling, etc. As someone who has spent a lot of time in them however, I wouldn't say this is a majority at all. I would say it's the minority, easily.
I am always surprised when I read comment sections on a controversial topic and scrolling through actively trying to find the reprehensible stuff. Interestingly, more often than not I see more comments "eye rolling" over the "cesspool" of comments they just sifted through, than I actually see bad comments myself. It's almost as if people just assume the comment section is filled with a lot of tripe.
Why do people assume this? Sure, you can always find the occasional racist comment, sexist comments, what have you in most comment sections. But, I have never seen one where the majority was just a bunch of slime, not even 50/50. So, what is it about comment sections that makes them "toxic" to people. Usually, when I get deep into comment sections I have really good conversations, or meme wars, or just joking around having lols with people I'll never meet in real life. Yeah, there's also arguments had, disagreements over things, but normally discussed cordially without the need for moderators to step in and instead of stopping "toxic" comments, instead just take sides and silence people.
I think it has to do with poisoning the well. Sure, there's a lot of good water in there, but a few drops of poison will still kill you. While that's a good comparison to the phenomena of people in general thinking comment sections are toxic, it doesn't reflect how they actually are. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater isn't the answer, but increasingly it seems as though companies running these sites don't want to see it.
It is their right to do it, but to me it makes the site far less interesting and engaging. I get why they do it. It's all a perception thing. They want control of everything, from their message and articles, to how they want you to "feel" about their website when you think about it. Sites don't like it when you disagree with the authors, or question their sources, or point out inaccuracies. These kinds of things makes your site lose credibility. Worse, something out of their control is people who have bad experiences with other users harassing them, or making troll comments to them drives them away from the site. That is out of their control mostly, unless of course they turn the comment sections off.
Again, I'm not an advocate for turning comments off anywhere. I really like being able to strike up a conversation online with anyone, especially people I disagree with. You learn the most talking with people who don't agree with you. You get to learn why they think the way they do, it can reaffirm what you believe if their evidence is sparse, or you can learn something that alters your thinking. Having no comments at all subjects you to one point of view of whatever you are reading or watching. This to me, is archaic. It's how media was consumed in the past. It just gets delivered to you and you absorb it. The internet advanced media in so many ways. One of the biggest ways has been the comment sections, and being able to react to articles with people around the world instantly.
Yeah, there's a ton of terrible people online and even if it were true that "most" people in comment sections are trolls, I'd still take that for the chance I meet someone who can give me a robust back and forth about the merits of 2D Zelda vs 3D Zelda.
My advice is just don't take it seriously, have fun with it, at least while it lasts. I can very well see eventually sites will no longer have comment sections at all. Possibly they'll evolve into only having paid comment sections where subcribers are allowed to discuss things but no one else. This happens quite a bit on Twitch now actually, which I kind of look at as a hyper fast evolved internet space where we can kinda see the future of the rest of the internet maybe.
*This final thought was moderated*
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