Starting Friday, readers of The Daily Californian will be able to comment on our online content through Facebook.
The Facebook Comments Box will replace Disqus, our current commenting platform, which we implemented in spring 2011 when we switched our website to a WordPress content management system.
The new system requires commenters to sign in using their Facebook accounts or an account with Yahoo, AOL or Hotmail. Those without any of these accounts will not be able to leave comments. Posting comments to one’s own Facebook page is an option, but it is not required.
In recent years, other news outlets, including The Dallas Morning News, TechCrunch, The Business Journals and the Los Angeles Times blogs, have made the move to Facebook to provide better authentication of comments and encourage more civility in discussions.
We are making this change in an effort to ease the difficult process of moderating comments and to foster a more honest discussion in the commenting section of the Daily Cal.
We have always encouraged readers to post under their real names, but in practice, many readers hide behind pseudonyms while posting mean-spirited or profane comments. We hope this change will improve the quality of discussion and discourage anonymous “trolls” from leaving often hostile or off-topic comments.
We encourage discussion, but we hope that our commenters act with respect and caution when voicing their opinions on various topics.
Still, we will continue to monitor comments on all articles and will remove any comments we deem in violation of our Comment Policy, which one can find at the top of the comment section on every article and on our about page.
Previous comments made through Disqus will appear below the live comment section.
As we continue to work on improving the reader experience of the Daily Cal online, we welcome your feedback and any questions you may have as we move forward.
Stephanie Baer is the editor in chief and president. Contact her at [email protected]
Comment Policy
Comments should remain on topic, concerning the article or blog post to which they are connected. Brevity is encouraged. Posting under a pseudonym is discouraged, but permitted. The Daily Cal encourages readers to voice their opinions respectfully in regard to the readers, writers and contributors of The Daily Californian. Comments are not pre-moderated, but may be removed if deemed to be in violation of this policy. Click here to read the full comment policy.
To all the people that complain this is part of some “liberal agenda”, please shut up. You will still free to comment whatever is appropriate on the site, whether it is a conservative or not, unless it is something mean-spirited and hateful, where it doesn’t deserve to be on here in the first place(which, somehow, a lot of this slips through, just like at the comment section of any SoT article.). If you hate this system, then just stop commenting on the site. It’s that simple.
“unless it is something mean-spirited and hateful, where it doesn’t deserve to be on here in the first place”
The problem is that anytime you challenge a cherished liberal concept or present something they can’t refute, it becomes mean-spirited, or hateful, or racist/sexist/whatever in their eyes. We all know damn well how the game is played, so please spare us your drivel.
Yeah, I’m sure calling a protester a terrorist and radicalist who should be killed or Nadia Cho a whore and cunt is totally fine in your eyes right? Any removal of this type of speech is simply the Daily Cal expressing their “left ideology” right?
Look, I enjoy smart and well-thought comments, whether they come from left or right ideologies, but I’m sick of all left/right bullshit drivel this has become. The daily cal barely edits the comments section(and I doubt they even look at considering it’s all bullshit anyway). Hopefully this change will bring in more civilized discussion, where everyone isn’t calling each other a socialist, radicalist, etc. If you don’t like it, then just go back to Yahoo or Fox News or whatever you feel like people will agree with you.
As someone without a Facebook, Yahoo or Hotmail account, this is takes away my voice. Anonymity is important. Even if everything said here is not politically correct, it is honest, which gives room for true discussion. Maybe an understanding can be reached. Maybe it can’t.
Transparency will only allow for the bigots to hide behind false fronts. How can you foster open discussion that way?
Just my 2 cents.
…before my voice is taken away forever. And also, F you Daily Cal
And what is up with this up/down vote thing? Why can’t everything just be in chronological order?
The inherent narcissism of liberals makes them ill-prepared to deal with criticism. Stephanie Baer’s concern about “mean-spirited” comments is laughable given that she’s the hand-picked puppet of the usual suspects trying to silence criticism of their particular agenda issues. Calling her a “journalist” is akin to calling Justin Bieber or Lady Googoo “artists” – a bad joke.
Spring 2011? Where’s your time machine, DC?
[We have always encouraged readers to post under their real names, but in
practice, many readers hide behind pseudonyms while posting
mean-spirited or profane comments.]
I guess I’m one of those “mean-spirited” people who the hypocrite writing under the anonymous moniker of “Senior Editorial Board” is referring to. I used to post under my real name years ago until some left-wing wackjob started stalking me online and posting personal info such as my phone number, place of residence and a description of my automobile and tried to encourage people to vandalize my home because he couldn’t deal with a difference of opinion. I post anonymously because there are a lot of little totalitarian shits on the Left who think it’s their divine right to silence others who don’t share their views. Oh well, we wouldn’t want to cause the little children any vaginal pains by expressing politically incorrect thoughts…
“We hope this change will improve the quality of discussion and discourage anonymous “trolls” from leaving often hostile or off-topic comments.”
Translation: We hope to improve the quality of discussion by discouraging people from leaving comments that will hurt a sensitive liberal arts major’s ears. Let’s pretend the Free Speech Movement never happened.
Tony, it’s horrible that editor Stephanie Baer and her “Senior Editorial Board” are forcing commentators like you to choose between their personal safety and commenting on the Daily Cal.
According to Baer, this is supposed “to foster a more honest discussion”. Well, good for her that she can eject from the site evil, bad conservative thinkers who value their personal safety.
Bad decision after bad decision by the Senior Editorial Board this semester.
Well, what do you expect from Junior Thought Police types who have been indoctrinated into thinking that Journalism is about peddling a left-wing agenda vs. dealing with the truth?
http://www.dailycal.org/2012/10/02/editors-note-daily-cal-drops-use-of-illegal-immigrant/
Just read: “Editor’s Note: Daily Cal drops use of ‘illegal immigrant’”
https://twitter.com/skbaer/status/253607863430311936
.@dailycal weighs in on illegal v. undocumented debate./bit.ly/QHcclt
Editor Stephanie Baer thinks it’s totally acceptable for her newspaper to weigh in on the issue of illegal immigration by supporting law-breakers.
She’s like: “Let’s throw any semblance of journalistic neutrality out the window.”
Any and all comments that don’t peddle the left-wing view is to her “mean-spirited or profane comments” or “hostile or off-topic comments”. Way to “encourage discussion”, Stephanie.
I have found that Disqus has been a really good way to get people to post honestly. The ability of people to post anonymously also allows them the freedom to speak their minds. Maybe the Daily Cal notices how protesters often cover their faces so they have the freedom to express themselves. Facebook is just another way to try to censor the discussion. It will fail, because Cal students are intelligent enough to create anonymous Facebook accounts.
Oh, it’s OK to be a protester and threaten others with violence while wearing a mask. In fact, these idiots at the Daily Cal STILL try to promote the Occupy movement at every opportunity. However, it’s quite clear that they are deathly scared of somebody posting anonymous contents on a website. There’s a reason that liberals have always romanticized places like Cuba and Venezuela, as their ideal society is one where all dissent is outlawed. Inside every liberal is a little closet totalitarian waiting to escape.
When the Daily Cal liberals came to Berkeley, they thought Cal was a liberal utopia with no conservatives.
When they saw people expressing conservative opinions, they became SHOCKED and ANGRY.
Dissent to these foaming liberals must be stamped out.
Most posters comment anonymously because they don’t want any foaming
left-wing lunatics pounding at their door or assaulting them when they
walk to class.
Baer’s edict brings the Daily Cal one step closer to removing all conservative thought from this website.
Congratulations, Baer for getting your liberal agenda accomplished within your first semester as editor!
I shudder to think what the next semester will bring.
“When the Daily Cal liberals came to Berkeley, they
thought Cal was a liberal utopia with no conservatives.”
Liberals and progressives romanticize Berkeley as some enclave cloistered from the real world, which they can not deal with.