Crude, vulgar war of words : Defiling platform for debates
- Sangai Express Editorial :: November 29 , 2013 -

Absence of a permanent moderator and large scale presence of idle minds, ready to spew venoms under different names, have more or less combined to whip up a near perfect cocktail for the numerous distasteful, crude and at times vulgar comments to make it to the readers’ comment page of the website of The Sangai Express.

Our due apologies for the failure to appoint a permanent moderator, so far, but yet at the same time we value the opinions and view points of our numerous on line readers who have never failed to give their insights and perspectives on issues besieging the State.

After the website of The Sangai Express was upgraded sometime in September, 2010, the number of visitors have been increasing with each passing day. At the moment, we have a little over 10,000 visitors per day with about 500 comments received on different news and articles daily.

And in the absence of a permanent, professional moderator, it is extremely difficult to sieve through all the comments and pass it.

This is not an exercise in excusing ourselves, but giving a realistic situation under which the comments on our website make it to the public domain.

On the other hand, it should also stand true that once the newspaper hits the news stand or the day’s paper is uploaded on the website, it becomes public property and herein lies a certain degree of public responsibility.

This is not to say that all the comments are crude, vulgar and at times downright communal, for there are sensible readers, who have taken pains to go through the stories with the seriousness it deserves and give insightful comments.

The article published alongside, from the Readers’ Editor of The Hindu, Mr AS Paneerselvan would perhaps give a better understanding on the intricacies of the job and responsibilities of a permanent or regular moderator to study and pass the comments made by their on line readers.

In the beginning, The Sangai Express did go through all the comments and sometimes trashed them or edited them to suit the tastes of the readers but as time went on and with the increase in the number of comments and visitors, this has become extremely difficult.

Not that not a look is given to the comments from the readers, but there have been many slips in the recent past.

The Sangai Express is not one to shy away from our weaknesses and failures but in as much as our failure to appoint a permanent moderator is a major loophole, it also stands true that there are readers out there ready to spew venoms, crossing all lines of decency.

Complaints have been received from well wishers as well as patrons of this newspaper on the distasteful comments that have been passed and we have taken due note of them.

But as things stand today, we are not in a position to minutely go through all the comments. It cuts both ways.

We encourage and welcome comments and opinions and view points but at the same time we detest comments or view points which cross the laxman rekha.

Given the present situation and the reality that have been spelt out, we urge our readers to desist from using unparliamentary language and instead engage in meaningful exchange of ideas and debates, not arguments.

Should not be too tough a call to follow if the platform provided by The Sangai Express on its website is appreciated in its truest sense.

It is all a question of exercising one’s wisdom and conscience while digesting a news item or an opinion carried in an article.

Differences of opinion, there will be, but certainly there should be acceptable ways of putting across one’s view points.

Using crude language and in the process hurting the sentiments of the writer or a community does not at all reflect well on the mentality of the readers who laboured to come out with some of the most unpalatable expressions.