A writer and editor for the extremely popular tech site Slashdot lays out some rules for newspapers in the age of the internet, summarized as follows:

1. No matter how much I or any other reporter or editor may know about a subject, some of the readers know more. What's more, if you give those readers an easy way to contribute their knowledge to a story, they will.

2. Not all readers know what they're talking about.

3. No matter what you do, some readers will post malicious and/or obscene comments.

4. Readers will post comments that advertisers don't like, but that makes it a more effective advertising medium in the long run because some of that trust will rub off on advertisers that support it.

I've been on /. for a while, and there are some very smart people there. There's also some disgusting idiots. But it's amazing how the collective wisdom of the moderation systems weeds out the clueless and the ignorant. 

This entry was posted by Kevin Creighton, on 11.30.2005. You can leave your response.