stop the madness!

the indy star site has gotten a lot of flak in the past—from this blog in particular—for insufficient moderation of its comments. recently, the star adopted a new design that brings user comments right onto the same page as the news article.

many have wondered how the new setup would fare in warding off hate speech and the other filth that used to run rampant—the new system requires commenters to register, which some speculated would keep out some of the worst offenders. today, we get our first major test: another story about foot baths at the airport!

so how does it fare? well, things don't seem to be any better. not only are the comments still brimming with offensive muslim-hate, but i had no trouble finding this racial slur—it was the second comment on the story:


stop the madness, indeed! note the timestamp: 6 a.m. i'm writing this at 9:30 and the comment is still there. in fact, i clicked that report abuse link at least 20 minutes ago and the comment's still up. how long does it take to get hate speech deleted from indystar.com?

but my favorite part is that five people recommended the comment. five people saw the words "towel heads" and thought, yeah, i agree with that! click! ¶