The Guardian: now kind of irrelevant?

[CrotchBurn]

I mean with the online version. There used to be a time (only four or five years ago I'd say) where almost all articles were open for comment, and you could really get stuck into reading users' debates. You'd get some smart and informed posters discussing stuff in detail, it was really interesting.

Now it seems basically one out of every ten articles only ( if that) has comments enabled. There used to be a weekly thread where some posters even had their own little community. What's going on?! For a few years now it's felt like a proper ghost town.

To be honest the hounding of suzanne moore was the final nail in the coffin for me personally. But even putting that aside - you used to have these articles ("the UK is an evil place!", "why men should hate themselves!" Etc etc) but at least "below the line" was a laugh.

Anyone noticed the same?! Where else is good with an interesting collection of posters comments?

I've also noticed this about the comments! I can dometimes track down the article on fb and read the comments there but a couple of times have found they havnt posted the article on fb.

Does anyone know why they are restricting comments to certain articles so heavily?

I'm guessing it's a cost cutting measure as they can't afford moderators. Otherwise it becomes a free for all like YouTube.

Yabu. Comments are the worst Part about online news. I don’t want to know what some random thinks

@TDMN
Glad I'm not alone!

I do like to read the actual articles but I especially like to read others debating it. Some of them are really sharp and on it.

I suppose if you read the Guardian to comment on articles then it would now be irrelevant to you. I just like the articles so not irrelevant to me. So it depends really I suppose 🤷‍♀️

@justanotherremainer
But in a lot of cases the journalists are just randoms

@justanotherremainer

Yabu. Comments are the worst Part about online news. I don’t want to know what some random thinks

Quite - one can come here to see what randoms think. Don’t need it in my actual news too.

@thewinkingprawn
I wouldn't read the Guardian just for its articles, no. I think they are heavily biased and sometimes sloppy, FT or WSJ are better IMO. But definitely their commenting community was unbeatable

I subscribe to the times - the comments can be shockingly racist and sexist - the FT is better, fewercomments and less ranting.

@PinkyParrot
I read the Times articles but never bother with the comments. FT is good.

I read the FT. That's where all the good journos have gone.

I wondered where the comments sections had gone. I still like the Guardian though. I've just read the most scary article by an ITU consultant, think it's the worst covid related Dr account I've read.

Former lifelong Guardian reader, recently jumped ship to the FT online.

I always used to buy a hard copy at the weekend, but now I subscribe. Quite expensive up front, but the quality of the insight is outstanding.

My favourite thing at the G used to be the science articles. You'd click on an article about some planetary discovery, scroll down to the comments and find pages and pages of complete science and space nerds battling it out and would actually learn quite a lot.

There was an article that was amazing - I cant remember whether it was about a trip to India or Kathmandu, but in the comments some guy talked about how he was backpacking there in the 80s, and another traveller, completely off his face, picked him up and gave him a ride. The poster said it was the most terrifying experience of his life bombing down this narrow mountain road being driven by a guy who was tripping. And then that guy appeared in the comments to say: that was me! I was that guy! They had a good old reminiscing. It was touching to read.

The Guardian is an embarrassment.

It's sexist, racist, and homophobic.

It labels anyone who dares disagree with its stances as "right wing".

It never lets the other side of the debate speak.

I won't cry it's inevitable death.

It’s a comic for woke kids and Americans

I used to love the Guardian.

I really enjoy the saturday guardian and the observer and wouldnt be without either

I feel completely betrayed by the Guardian's contempt for women who won't swallow the idea that sex is irrelevant to women's oppression/male bodied people can be women.

Do they really think that liberal women, many of whom have been involved in progressive/activist work, suddenly and simultaneously became right wing bigots?

I think it's a giant misogynist fury against their mothers, since features now seems to be run by kids in their late twenties whose mums will all be gender critical as fuck.

Agree. I miss the comments. And I miss the newspaper it used to be. I read it for years. Now it's just a woke comic. Can't trust it at all. Misses important stories because they don't fit it's agenda. It's a shame. I do still get the observer on Sundays sometimes and it's a bit better than that the guardian. But nothing like it was a few years ago.

I still look multiple times a day (! veeeery distractable) but more and more often the news section seems flat and dull. as @sessell says they do seem to miss or be slow with stories more and more often, and the opinion response to news is usually so predictable. Many of the features too performative. And finally, I really really hate the way they've starting to Buzzfeed up their headlines.("A war vet walked 100 miles and the world lost its shit"). It's painful, and painfully late.

Also - what's going on with all the Boomer-baiting paid content? The weekend editions are full of wannabe woke twonkery from that beige glop Oaty ...

@justanotherremainer

Yabu. Comments are the worst Part about online news. I don’t want to know what some random thinks

Ah, but it's like a peep show. You know that it's tawdry but you can't help but look

Comments in the Guardian have been on the side for years. The start of the rot was when they brought in recommends. The result is that the comments are dominated my a bunch of loudmouths and smart alecs. The same names turn up on every politics-related article saying things that might as well be computer generated.

In the last couple of years I've noticed that comments are never allowed on articles where the editorial line isn't overwhelmingly popular. So, no comments on trans issues, BLM, feminism etc.

That does still leave plenty though, eg in the sport and lifestyle sections.

I've read the Guardian all my life. I do find the excessive wokery of the online edition annoying, and Suzanne Moore's treatment was shameful. I think it's still relevant- its international profile has never been higher- but I'm also looking for an alternative.

@TomPinch

In the last couple of years I've noticed that comments are never allowed on articles where the editorial line isn't overwhelmingly popular. So, no comments on trans issues, BLM, feminism etc

I've noticed this too. Practically the only articles in the Opinion section open for commentary are articles about the Tories. Anything else seemed to risqué is shut off.