Letters to the Editor [LWN.net]

From:		Joe Klemmer <klemmerj@webtrek.com>
To:		letters@lwn.net
Subject:		Letters to the Editor
Date:		04 Nov 2002 11:06:00 -0500

	There's been a lack of letters to the editor that has been commented on
by LWN a number of times.  I'd like to express my thoughts on why there
have been few, if any, people writing in.

	With the new CMS built for LWN the advent of comments to specific
articles was added.  This was due to a large request from readers. 
There is nothing wrong with being able to comment and have a
psudo-interactive discussion.  A side effect, though, is that things
people previously would have sent in as letters are now simply being
posted as comments.

	Is this good or bad or a non-issue?  I can't say.  For me, I'd rather
have the LttE than article comments but that's just my preference. 
Maybe a compromise system could be used.  A page with an outline of all
the comments ordered by article title might work.  This is just a
thought off the top of my head.  Anyone else have any ideas?

-- 
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Re (comment): Letters to the Editor

Posted Nov 7, 2002 9:36 UTC (Thu) by tres (guest, #352) [Link]

Well this is an interesting thing to do: post a comment to a letter that stated what Joe K. stated above. Having said that, this is my proposed solution:

Have a letters section that lists the most recently published letters in reverse chronological order. This would facilitate people being able to write letters and have them posted in less than a week. I prefer reading letters over comments for two reasons: 1) the authors seem to think about their words (as well as spell check and proof read them) more instead of just shooting off a quick thought or two. 2) It is easier not to miss them; I read the comments that are attached to the article after I read the article (and sometimes post my own comments) but I never really go back to the article to see if someone else has posted a comment; once I've read the article and the comments I move on. The possible exception to this is if I notice a large number of comments while reading the abstract in the weekly section.

If there was one article/day posted on the front page that listed the subject of the letters that had been posted from the previous day and also include links to the comments that Jon C. thought to be especially eloquent or insightful then that would negate the need for the letters page of the weekly. (Mr. C might also want to consider removing this from the subscription area so that people w/o subs could read and post.) I think that solution would alleviate the two problems of publishing delay and comments being missed because the article had already been read. If the letter page is to be retained in the weekly then I think an addendum of good comments is in order.

If Jon C. and others want there to be more activity in a letters section (in the weekly or otherwise) then initiating it with a weekly topic (IP issues, kernel features, release cycles, M$ settlement/judgement, free software office applications, political issues and bills, questions for an email interview, etc.) including a poll (for subscribers only to prevent ballot stuffing) a few linked articles of relevance and a short paragraph or two from our esteemed editor, Mr. C. himself, on the letters page the week before publishing the letters and poll results and opening up the comments section would be a great place to start. I'm not trying to suggest our already overworked authors kill themselves with effort; merely suggesting that they throw out some thought fodder. A summary of the weeks better points, links to more resources or activism sites, and conclusions would be a great addition to a LWN archive. With this amount of effort I believe that restriction to subscribers is appropriate.

Great site -- Good work -- Regards, Tres

P.S. ... Perhaps have the "Preview Comment" actually spell check comments to alleviate the need for so many 'brown paper bags'!

P.S.S. ... Now that the length of this comment is such that it is, perhaps it should have been a letter. But then it wouldn't have been posted until next week.

Re (comment): Letters to the Editor

Posted Nov 7, 2002 18:41 UTC (Thu) by chicks (guest, #3877) [Link]

I like your idea, but I'd rather put a different twist on it. What if the letters to the editor page highlighted the most interesting comments and commentary from the previous week? I love LWN, but I'm not going to go through the entire issue clicking on all of the "Read 3 comments" links to see what everybody is saying. I do sometimes, but it's awkward and people commenting after I've read the issue have no chance of getting read. Rather than just putting a link to the individual comments actually including the whole text or at least a blurb would let us get a good idea of which mini-discussions are worth reading or contributing further to. To me, this would keep the nice feel of a Letters to the Editor page. I hope you'll agree. :)