Sad news.

You may recall a game I suggested relating to comments on FoxNews.com. Especially the Dinosaur section.

I heard some feedback that some people were having trouble playing the game. It looks like Fox News has disabled commenting on many SciTech topics. Other categories of news have comments as normal.

Here are all the SciTech categories, and their commenting state:

  • Archaeology - comments enabled
  • Dinosaurs - comments disabled
  • Planet Earth - comments disabled
  • Wild Nature - varies by article
  • Air and Space - comments enabled
  • Science - comments disabled
  • Tech - comments enabled
  • Gadgets - comments enabled
  • Military - comments disabled

I did have a quick look at the HTML for clues, but could see no obvious differences between comment-enabled and -disabled pages.

Now, I could find no independent confirmation of these commenting changes. I could be wrong — maybe my browser is playing tricks on me, or maybe there’s just some strange temporary glitch on the Fox News site.

But if I’m right, I wonder what the motive is? My theory is that it’s to stop people talking shit in the comments. Let’s look at each category and think what kind of bad commenter it might attract:

  • Archaeology - comments enabled
    Mormons.
  • Dinosaurs - comments disabled
    Young earth proponents.
  • Planet Earth - comments disabled
    Climate change deniers.
  • Wild Nature - varies by article
    Creationists.
  • Air and Space - comments enabled
    Geocentrists. Flat-earthers.
  • Science - comments disabled
    Anti-science people (not that anyone openly calls themselves “anti-science” but they exist).
  • Tech - comments enabled
    Brand-name die-hards.
  • Gadgets - comments enabled
    Brand-name die-hards.
  • Military - comments disabled
    Hawks and Doves.

Mormons won’t object to most archaeology stories (most discoveries are not North American). Geocentrists and flat-earthers are exceedingly rare. Brand-name fights are limited to certain brands, and even then don’t generate flames as hot as political or religious debates.

So… I think my theory fits well.

Well, it would except for the fact that the Politics section has comments enabled, and I’d wager it generates plenty of crazy itself. Perhaps that’s a topic for a future post…

(Source: )