[Web4lib] Academic libs - allowing anonymous comments on your site?

[Chester D. Mealer]

Conventional wisdom in the social media world says if you're going to block at all, it should be only on the basis of language. If someone complains about something, acknowledge the complaint, and the difficulty they had, then deal with it and be seen dealing with it. If it is something you cannot, or should not, solve explain why. The only complaints which hurt, are ones you do nothing about. Additionally automatic language filters will not need staff time to moderate every comment.

We do not currently have commenting on our actual website, but we do allow it on our Facebook page, and the information we post there.

Chester Mealer
Webmaster
Rapides Parish Library

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Chris Magnusson
Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2010 9:16 AM
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Academic libs - allowing anonymous comments on your site?

I am with a public library and almost all of the comments on our blog
have been authors trying to promote their books.

Chris Magnusson
A/P Clerk / Website Technician
City of Hibbing
401 East 21st Street
Hibbing, MN 55746
218-262-3486 ext 712 
218-312-9712 Fax/Voice Mail
www.hibbing.mn.us
cmagnusson at ci.hibbing.mn.us


 


-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of William Denton
Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2010 8:45 AM
To: Melissa Belvadi
Cc: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Academic libs - allowing anonymous comments on
your site?

On 4 March 2010, Melissa Belvadi wrote:

> But my concerns may be unfounded, so I'd like to hear any experiences,
> positive or negative, that other academic libraries may have had doing
> this.
> Do any of you have anything like this on your sites now? Did you try
it
> and later remove the feature?

At York U (http://www.library.yorku.ca/) we put the UserVoice feedback
tab 
on the side of all our pages.  Anonymous comments and suggestions are 
allowed, and after about six months there hasn't been a hint of any 
problems.  Not many people use it, but those that do say relevant stuff.

(I assume UserVoice is doing some antispam work I don't see, too.)

Aside from spam, I think the main problem libraries will have is people 
saying nothing, not people saying rude things.

Bill
-- 
William Denton, Toronto : miskatonic.org www.frbr.org openfrbr.org


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