Is it insensitive to allow comments on tragedies?

[Sunny_Angel]

I've been wondering this on the recent plane incident. Most news sites have allowed comments, and these comments are usually pretty lame jokes on what is essentially the death of over 200 people.

 

So on topic, is it insensitive to allow comments on this so quickly? We all know people will joke. And it would be naive to think that the families wouldn't follow news, hoping against hope for updates. So what's your view on this?

[Mopiece]

There will always be the people who are going to be insensitive jerks. You can't really stop that.

 

I usually don't see that many jokes that are in poor taste when it comes to tragic news though. So I don't see any reason to disable comments.

[bacman136]

i think comments do more good than harm. mopiece is right, there will always be jerks anywhere you go. but most of the time people can have pretty intense discussions in comments sections or what if someone commented with information on the missing plane.=P

[Sunny_Angel]

Mopiece wrote:

There will always be the people who are going to be insensitive jerks. You can't really stop that.

 

I usually don't see that many jokes that are in poor taste when it comes to tragic news though. So I don't see any reason to disable comments.

I do agree that there are only a few. However, and I'm quoting the plane example again, exactly how do comments allow any constructive decision. The best you can hope for is non-hurtful speculation

[Aisling Yinyr Ngaio]

I don't see any reason to disable comments on topics like that. There are some who likes to pay their respects on events like these. However, I do think that these news sites should at least have a moderating team to monitor the more insensitive comments.

[Sunny_Angel]

Again, I do agree that comments should be allowed, to let people pay respect. But let's see, sites like Yahoo have over 10000 comments and a pretty poor moderation system.

[Aisling Yinyr Ngaio]

Well this is the internet. There will always be douches. What I've also seen is that for every douchey comment there are at least five people who will be like "hey, that's not cool, don't be like that", so it becomes a self-moderating system.

 

But one thing you should really remember is that this is the internet.

[Sunny_Angel]

aislingyngaio wrote:

Well this is the internet. There will always be douches. What I've also seen is that for every douchey comment there are at least five people who will be like "hey, that's not cool, don't be like that", so it becomes a self-moderating system.

 

But one thing you should really remember is that this is the internet.

 

I guess you're right about that

[Specter]

You can't get away from the negative effects if you wish so... the internet is a place to express. Sadists do and will continue to make such comments...

[ujwal08]

I guess we could put it in a different point of view.

Well, maybe people doing such things are actually not such 'douches' but rather quite ignored people(a possible psychological reason). So, I guess despising them isn't any good. Rather you might like to pity them(or ignore them) for their psychological condition which would be the most annoying thing you could do to them

BTW I don't mean to support it in any way, but that's what people do for a few likes and seeking a bit of attention(be that in form of anger).

[ms_rayvenn]

I think people should be allowed to speak their minds. That being said, just because you are ALLOWED to do something doesn't necessarily mean you SHOULD. Sometimes people use jokes as a coping mechanism for tragic events, and don't really intend to be mean.