Yes, We Disabled Our Comments Section, Here's Why
Over the past couple of weeks, some of you may have noticed things look a bit different at OnStage Blog. Yes, we changed our logo, added a bit of color to it. Yes, we also changed our name. Going simply by OnStage was becoming confusing with all the other entities out there that shared the same name. So we changed it to match the URL and how we're usually referred to by other outlets.
But one of the bigger changes, that some of you have picked up on, is that we disabled our comments section on the site.
Why did we do this? Are we trying to censor our readers? Are we trying to stifle your Freedom of Speech? Are we scared of your feedback?
The truth is none of the above. I was simply tired of having a tool on my blog that enabled people to anonymously post hateful and vulgar comments.
On an average day, this site attracts a little over 6,000 readers and about 20-30 comments. Moderating these comments are important to weed out trolling and hate from otherwise meaningful discussions. However, as OnStage Blog delves deeper and deeper into debatable topics, the majority of comments had very little to do with furthering discussion and more to do with expressing hate through a perverse thought process.
Worst of all, there was no way to prevent readers from doing this anonymously. Yes, you had to enter an email in order to comment, but it could be a fake email which would still allow you to comment.
On the flip side, when people were truthful with who they were, while spouting vulgar and obnoxious verbiage, I would usually get a request days later from them asking me to remove the comment, which is just sad and pathetic.
So after some thought, I decided to remove the comment section on our website. If our content moves you in a way to respond or comment, you can do that on our many social networks or your own. This way you're doing it as yourself for all to see.
We will still continue to moderate comments on our social networks.
So I am sorry if you are someone who enjoyed commenting directly on the site. If you choose not to visit anymore because this capability has been removed, so be it.
But I feel this is the best step forward with more honest and open debate and discussion regarding the content on our site.