Nieman Foundation at Harvard
After years of touting its commenting system as the key to its community of readers, The Huffington Post is abandoning its own proprietary system and today is switching solely to a Facebook commenting system on its U.S. site, including mobile and apps.
The move is a response to the ever-changing online ecosystem, Huffington Post chief technology officer Otto Toth said in a blog post announcing the change on Saturday. “It’s bringing the discussions and debates to the places where you engage with them the most and introducing so much of what makes the HuffPost community great to the broader Facebook audience,” he wrote.
At least two groups of people really didn’t like the move. The first is a lot of HuffPo commenters — at least those commenting on Toth’s post, many of whom said they wanted to keep their personal Facebook life separate from the discussions they have on The Huffington Post. Here’s a taste; the comments go on and on and on:
Some even posted one last time in the old format on other posts to lament the change:
This is the second time in just a matter of months that The Huffington Post is revamping its commenting system. Last year it banned anonymous commenting on the site, and in December it unveiled its now defunct-policy for how users must identify themselves. Under that policy, users had to link to a Facebook profile to verify their identity, but they could choose to be identified by their full name or just their first name and last initial (I’d be Joseph L.). It also gave users the option to request anonymity if they chose to.
While it’s too soon to know how many commenters will really abandon The Huffington Post, spokeswoman Amanda Schumacher told me in an email that “initial Facebook commenting tests across a selection of our verticals did not show a significant impact to the amount or quality of comments.” There are more than 70 million comments posted annually on The Huffington Post, according to a 2012 Poynter article.
The second group that didn’t like the move? Media people who couldn’t understand why HuffPo would want to cede control of such a large and dedicated community to Facebook rather than try and continue to develop it itself.
Huge blunder for @aol MT “@dangillmor:HuffPost latest to hand a key part of its future to Facebook. http://t.co/aAp4C5K3kA”
— jason (@Jason) May 31, 2014
Really surprised to see HuffPost move to Facebook Comments after so much time spent building its own community. http://t.co/SKMKcJJIQV
— Jeff Sonderman ✎ (@jeffsonderman) June 2, 2014
The switch to Facebook comments is currently only for the U.S. edition of HuffPost, though it plans to change HuffPost Canada and HuffPost U.K. “in the near term,” Schumacher said. Other international editions could follow after then.
Update: This post was updated with additional comments from The Huffington Post at 4 p.m. EDT
241 comments:
Actually, you are 100 pct full of shit. The bottomline is simple. You despise Conservatvies. I despise you and your ilk. So we are even. I used to be a really nice guy when I 1st joined Huff Post and have always used my own real name. I never knew such arrogant/snide/rude SOB like the radical far left even existed. I am 100 pct dead serious.
Being born and raised here in NW ND, and owning a family owned and run Oil Field Construction Business with HQ in Crosby and Field Offices in Watford City/Dickinson ND/Miles City/Wolf Point MT/Casper and Rawlins WY I travel quite often. And not one single time in my entire life have I ever met anyone even remotely close as the nut cases of the so called liberals, so called progressivess. Not 1 single time. I thank God your ilk are not here. their would be some killings.
Yeah I can feel the nice guy love ,passion and desire for clean cut conversation from you now , and so can everybody else here as a Christian I pray for people like you ,I can’t relate to people who are full of so much hate and anger , as far as your travels and the people you associate with ,maybe it would help if you broaden your associations, I don’t despise the PERSON who is conservatives for I know quite a few, I work in law enforcement for years and many of my friends and co-workers were conservatives but like many MODERATED Americans have come to believe the Neo -Conservatives have taken the party of Lincoln to a low that will likely be the end of the GOP soon
cia was having some trouble tracking down people making anti-establishment comments
I was very active on HP but I feel totally abandoned by them Why in the world would I want to put my FB name/profile on a controversial article so crazies could stalk me. I enjoyed their articles but I’m sure I can find a substitute. They’ve jumped the shark!
Fake moniker? You can easily make a fake facebook account and link to it.
I for on didn’t like the bias that tends to come when people automatically know your age, race, and sex. They start assuming more than they did when they could only judge me by my words.
“you are 100 pct full of shit” Is this an example of your “nice and clean” talking discussions?
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HuffPost ruined the reason many readers came to their website, so we could engage each other in their comments section. Over the years, we got to “know” each other and had great conversations. Now that’s all over. I’m not even going to bother with HuffPost anymore. Sad.
Freakin huff post .. pah!!
Well I think it’s time for some other open minded news media to open another site that does not force people to have a Facebook account or to post on Facebook. Does anyone know of any Canadian News sites we can comment on?
Fine with me.The fradulent politicians currently in power send more people to this unfortunate hoodlums funeral then to Margaret Thatchers?What an embarrassment.How many will these wicked shitlickers send to Castro’s?Here is the big difference,men and wimen are fallen creatures all.Not one side.Regardless,communism leftist shit is a tool along with fascism of the megalomaniac power whores of the new world order.Cops in and of themselves are of course not evil.Their our brothers and sisters.But those who blindly follow a marxist muslim racist like obama and holder are not only the most ultimate of wicked untrustworthy Bastards!!!But so also are their blind over reaching over emotional unfactual perverts of the truth.If you can’t even admit an obvious truth to yourselves,then your beyond hope.Blacks kill Blacks 7 to 8 times more daily thruout the USA.And irs 10 to 20 times more likely a white human being will be killed by a black one.So shut the fuck up you worthless lying slanted wouldn’t know the TRUTH if it jumped up and bit your criminal ass.
Your full of shit.And a liar too boot.
Huffington
post deletes all who do not agree with their liberal agendas which cannot be
trusted. I have been kicked off and not allowed to comment many time.
There were no bad words just comments that disagreed with what their writers
stated of what other commenters had stated. How sad and how biased is a site
that will not allow the freedom of speech come from both sides!
Same trash talk here as on Huff post but I got the best one. Because I mentioned that a Hiff post reporter posted a fake complaint paper( sorry you cannot go to your local police station and get one) about a Ferguson cop because he was mad at being told to leave a dangerous area during the riots. There were some words bandied about and he was escorted out. Now, because I pointed that out on a Huff post I am banned from ever commenting on there again. GO ME!!!!
A big Blunder
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And you have nothing that any thinking person would be interested in hearing anyway.
You should find it first.
I can’t even see the comments much less participate as I don’t have a Facebotch app.
Seems like everyone is going the FB route, just canceled my account.
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They (progressives) love, trust, and admire the state. The state (their ultimate leader, and the source of all legit solutions) has told them that it needs to track citizens’ thoughts more easily and that it could be better accommodated by using Facebook (who already cooperates with the real fascist state) where they can also begin their profiling and spying more easily. The HP had too big of a group of people who occasionally think outside of the Red/Blue distraction game and the need to track (and ultimately control) those people require this.
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I witnessed this switch to facebook with Espn.com. before facebook you would have the most interesting debates and all out honesty. You had some really sports savvy people making comments. After the facebook it was like everyone got their nuts cut off. Everyone was super polite and politically correct. The intellectual debate level dropped off a cliff. No one wanted to make a negative comment in fear of it coming back to haunt them. Facebook comment sections suck arse!! Disqus is the best.
Why can’t we use Disqus to comment, like I’m doing here?
I no longer have a facebook account, why would HP force people to have one in order to comment, oh wait, money, guess they aren’t as progressive and left leaning as they pretend to be.
i will not support Huffington Post’s decision to force me to use Facebook. Buh-bye!
I liked the comment section. I enjoyed reading them and many times came away with valuable references. I will miss them and will be reading HP less. I’m not on face book and never will be.
I’m done with Huff Post. It had a minimum of trolls.
I enjoyed learning from a variety of comments.
I don’t have Facebook, so I’m out of the conversation anyway.
I’ll continue my newspaper subscriptions.
Agree
Not a happy camper….The majority of my fb friends do not share my political views and do not use fb to engage in political discourse…Out of respect for them I promised not to litter their front pages with a barrage of my views and posts….I know they can scroll on by or use the ‘hide’ button but that is not the point…It’s easy for me because I choose to keep a small friend’s list…Even so I know how annoying it is when people post daily updates about pets etc and things that are of interest to them but may not be to others…I’m a faithful huffingtonpost reader and trust that I’m getting honest and truthful news….I will not abandon you and I’m sure that I will adapt to this new policy but will miss the comment section ‘bigly.’….Thank you for this opportunity to voice my concerns….
Gateway Pundit is on the ‘fake news’ list…..Saying the word Hitler will not get you rejected but using it as a slur to name-call should and probably did…Huffingtonpost is one the better sites because of their strict guidelines….
I have to admit I do not know how this works now. How do you access specific articles? How do you locate responses to comments you have made? It all looks a bit of a mess to my eyes.
The bye Huff. I’ been long time member. I looked forward to you for my daily dose of world news and politics, You were my home page. Now, I’m looking at CNN or the Washington Post. If I wanted my posts to be on Facebook I’d have gone your Facebook page. My comments were for the Facebook community.
Where’s your proof that moderators did what you claim?
Ha, ha, ha. Do you not realize this is a three year old comment thread? And where do I get proof that Puffington Hoax did this to me and others… going as far as not allowing my comments to post for more than a year. I guess you have no interest in current events.
Yeah, I saw that after I posted. Just asking for your proof, guess you have your personal anecdotal account. Not surprised they did this, most threads are moderated. Good word play, (PH) you make that up yourself?
Sadly, any type of comments go away with the commentator… That is good? NO. We are hoping that any comment, good or bad is it worth? NO. It banishes as the wishes for some entity that make us not welcome in any form or word.
The most hateful and the most pitiful comments will not stand as it should be in a meaningful way to see both sides of the coin as it alway should be. Only assholes who comply to be deceptive will be taken into account in the future that hypocrites dream of. Not the real thing?. That is how we want to be in the future: Fuckers with thumbs up!.
You would probably consider anyone who disagreed with you to be abrasive, insulting and cruel. That’s just how Progressives react. If I say homosexuality is wrong because the Bible says so, you’ll run away crying and say you’re being abused.
Wow. Next time you see here how many times Ambassador Stevens asked for help and Hillary Clinton denied it, remember how his half-living body was tortured, sodomized and dragged through the streets. Then tell me how that kind of death and the negligence that caused it can ever be “off topic.”
What a surprise. You know the name of a musical.
I enjoy your doggedness here. I was only looking into how many websites forced users to have a Facebook account and got stuck in this mire. I’m really surprised how prevalent “forcing Facebook” it is.
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