ABSTRACT
Journalism's online comment conundrum is a many-headed hydra of problems in need of innovative solutions. To scale open public participation with civility and within an ethical journalistic framework, there are design flaws to debug, saboteurs to outsmart and a host of psychological and sociological forces to understand. Journalists should approach comments as part of their overall ethical decision making, knowing that even with the best technology, comments are not a "set it and forget it" type of activity. Any flaw in a digital commenting system will be exploited by subversive actors. Journalists must move forward with digital discourse efforts knowing that members of the audience will impulsively post venomous and half-baked thoughts in comment sections. Through the years, news sites have also experimented with a variety of user experience (UX) designs, comment moderation and troll-deterrent techniques, efforts aimed at tempering the ongoing toxicity.
