It's a mudpit-Ryan Sholin looks at commenting at news sites

Commenting on news stories is still broken. Busted. Stinks. It’s a mudpit. Still

.

That was one of the comments left on Ryan Sholin's site as he continues his investigation into commenting on news sites

He adds that therefore

In short, you can let readers “report as offensive” and ask questions and e-mail to a friend and vote comments up and down and recommend comments all day long, but if there’s not a journalist managing the community — participating in threads, asking and answering questions, and generally continuing the conversation — your comment threads will stay a mudpit, all technology, identity, and registration aside.

So if it is broken how do you fix it?

It has always astounded me that this tool of intercation between journalists and the public is not made much greater use of by the journalistic community.As a blogger I will always when possible respond to comments left on my site,why is it that so many journalists don't follow this lead.Do they read the reaction,have they got time to read the reaction.

If online news is to succeed as being a two way element then this needs to be addressed