Comment & Community Feedback
Below the line: participation barriers, moderation fairness, and community health.
4 questions · 1 page · about 1 minute to answer · fully editable after you start
Comment sections are communities or cesspools by moderation choices. This survey asks readers about theirs: participation and its barriers, moderation consistency perceived from both directions (too heavy, too absent), and the community-health verdict that decides whether the section adds or subtracts from the brand.
Ask readers who never comment as well as those who do. A comment section's health is best described by the people it has silenced, and a survey routed only to active commenters will be answered by exactly the cohort whose behaviour drove everyone else out.
The stopped-commenting-because answers name the dynamics that silenced good-faith voices – the real moderation metric. Expect the too-heavy and too-absent complaints to arrive together and to come from different people; that is normal, and the useful signal is not the balance between them but the consistency question underneath. Readers tolerate strict moderation and tolerate light moderation, but a section whose rules appear to be applied unevenly loses the contributors it can least afford.
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Page 1
Below the line
This survey asks how you find taking part in our comments and community. Your answers help us make it a place people want to join. It takes about 1 minute.
Q1.Your participation?*
- Comment regularly
- Used to - stopped
- Read but never comment
- Avoid the comments entirely
Q2.Why did you stop commenting, or never start?
Asked only if the answer to Q1 is “Used to - stopped”, “Read but never comment” or “Avoid the comments entirely”.
Q3.The moderation feels...
| No | Sometimes | Yes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consistent in what it removes | |||
| Fast enough on the toxic | |||
| Fair to different viewpoints |
Q4.Do the comments add to or subtract from the journalism?
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