The Times is now turning off comments on all 'gender' articles

[MiladyBerserko]

The Times continue to cover this issue but now turn off comments on all 'gender' related articles. They do not turn off reader comments on any other topic, except where there is an open legal issue.

I am beyond frustrated with this. The Guardian nailed their colours to the 'Transwomen are women' mast a long time ago and disallow comments.

Now The Times seemingly cannot / will not allow reader feedback.

What is it about this issue that makes organisations run scared?

Thanks for the link. Comments are now turned off!

Good grief! Evidently the monitors were late getting up as there were a range of comments under the JKR Starmer article earlier.

Comments on this article are open and calling out Khan’s hypocrisy. The article is related to women’s rights and single sex spaces. The issue runs across a large number of areas and at this rate comments will need to be turned off on loads of articles. I wonder how long they will stay open on this one.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sadiq-khan-primary-schools-must-act-misogyny-8ck0qqg26

“ @Cuck00soup

They have turned the comments on this morning on an article about JKR and twittter, although they are pre-moderated.”

That was short lived! Off again,
I will say good bye to The Times.

I can still see the comments

And I can still approve comments.

I can't see them on the Daily Mail website for some reason, but maybe it's because I don't give it time to load.

The comments have returned

I suspect the editor has supported having the comments, the journalist allowed comments, the OpenWeb people removed them, and the editor has started work this morning and reinstated them. That's my hope, anyway...

Yes the comments are back on. Our complaints obviously worked.

They have turned the comments on this morning on an article about JKR and twittter, although they are pre-moderated

No they aren’t pre moderated. I just posted and it was published straight away.

@MrsOvertonsWindow

Looks like they've switched them all back on, Presumably the prospect of losing all those ex Guardian readers and women who value freedom of speech made them think twice. They've obviously decided to face down whoever was threatening them - OpenWeb or the trans activists?

How do you mean them all. That's excellent if true as I'm on there and until about 3 weeks ago I could comment, which I frequently did, being very careful with my language. I unsubscribed from the Guardian as I find their views abhorrent as regards women's rights.

Just spotted this comment on the Times link:

Diane Blackwell 8 HOURS AGO Good news!! I have just had a reply to my email to John Witherow, the editor, and they are reinstating the comments! Hooray, we succeeded!!

I forgot to add earlier that I too had written an email to the Times complaining about them stopping us commentating.

The Times have re run the story of the married male banker transitioning (from magazine on Saturday, now in Times2) No comments allowed on that article though

It's quite confusing Cailin66 This morning comments were open on the JKR piece and the Libby Purves piece . Then the JKR comments were all switched off and now they're back on with hundreds of comments. I suspect there's a battle going on behind the scenes.

Having been reading the Times for a number of years since abandoning the grim Guardian, their moderation has been problematic since they outsourced it to OpenWeb. You would see highly rated comments up for hours until the USA mods woke up and then the deletions would start. Women with legal, insightful views are always heavily targeted.

I could perhaps believe that it was about over-moderating if any comments were offensive or libellous. But they aren't.
It's people mainly posting "I agree with JKR"

So why is the discussion being prevented?
And who benefits?

In the most recent Eye

@ResisterRex I don't mind sanitary products in mens toilets - it at least acknowledges transmen exist and makes it easier for women to use the mens loos. Let's see how much men enjoy having women in there

@MrsOvertonsWindow

It's quite confusing Cailin66 This morning comments were open on the JKR piece and the Libby Purves piece . Then the JKR comments were all switched off and now they're back on with hundreds of comments. I suspect there's a battle going on behind the scenes.

Having been reading the Times for a number of years since abandoning the grim Guardian, their moderation has been problematic since they outsourced it to OpenWeb. You would see highly rated comments up for hours until the USA mods woke up and then the deletions would start. Women with legal, insightful views are always heavily targeted.

All I know is my comment is up and has stayed up and got a load of likes so I'm very happy the Times is allowing us to comment again. Great paper and they have been excellent in highlighting this issue in a fair manner and now that they've actually listened to us about comments I think they are great.

I don't know anything about Open web but I love reading the comments on this topic.

I can't see any comments sections
on share token versions. You used to be able to. Is it just me?

I also emailed and said I had only taken out my subscription because of their policy of allowing comments, unlike other papers, and would be cancelling if comments continued to be switched off.

Open Web

So how does OpenWeb spare publishers the headache of content moderation?
To illustrate, let’s follow two very different comments on their journey to getting posted.
Comment A is, let’s say, inflammatory - the kind of comment that can derail a conversation. OpenWeb’s AL/machine learning-enhanced filters - which can scan a comment for incivility, white supremacy, abuse, and more - instantly pick up on this: that’s strike one against the comment.
As it turns out, Comment A’s author has something of a history of posting inflammatory comments: OpenWeb’s software may already know this, because it tracks behavior at the user level, building Civility Profiles for commenters. So Comment A is already at a disadvantage, for the simple reason that its author has demonstrated an inability to play by the rules of civil discourse.
Accordingly - through our Best Sorting tool, and after an AI-powered analysis of the comment’s content and context - Comment A, if deemed unsafe, will be deemphasized in the comments section. And if it offends the readers who still manage to find it, they’ll have the ability to flag it. If it’s flagged enough times, it’ll be sent over to our staff of human moderators, who work to keep our partners safe 24/7, 365 days a year.
Now let’s examine another comment - Comment B. Comment B - posted at the exact same second as Comment A - is everything a comment should be: thoughtful, illuminating, relevant. It furthers the dialogue started by your article, and provides an opening for other users to contribute their own opinions. Better yet, its author has a history of similar comments: our system has flagged them as the kind of user that gets healthy conversation flowing. And so our system takes action - it moves Comment B to the top of the heap.
So in the span of just a few seconds - without any intervention on the part of the publisher’s team - a disruptive contribution is minimized and a generative one is highlighted. The conversation flows unimpeded, as your team works to keep the content flowing.

www.openweb.com

it moves Comment B to the top of the heap

How does it move a comment to the top of the heap? The reader has an option to sort the comments, on recommended (based on number of recommendations from fellow subscribers), newest and oldest.

@Ereshkigalangcleg

I can't see any comments sections on share token versions. You used to be able to. Is it just me?

I can't either. I'm on a phone, don't know if that's relevant.

How does it move a comment to the top of the heap? The reader has an option to sort the comments, on recommended (based on number of recommendations from fellow subscribers), newest and oldest.

That's a good question, something I was thinking about too. Perhaps when that doesn't work and they can't bury them the auto moderation is more heavy handed?

I can't either. I'm on a phone, don't know if that's relevant.

Same here.

@Ereshkigalangcleg

I can't see any comments sections on share token versions. You used to be able to. Is it just me?

I thought until recently that only subscribers could post comments but someone upthread I think said they could if they were 'registered'. Confusing