Top of the Ticket switches to Facebook comments later today
Top of the Ticket today is switching to a new commenting system -- Facebook comments.
The system requires commenters to sign in through their Facebook accounts. If you don't have a Facebook account, they're easy to set up, and free. Unfortunately, people without Facebook accounts will not be able to leave comments.
Readers will have the option of posting their Top of the Ticket comments on their Facebook walls, but that's not required.
The change is part of an experiment on The Ticket and several other Times entertainment and news blogs.
There are several benefits to this type of commenting. First of all, your comments will get posted immediately without the lag of moderation.
Second, we have seen an increase in intelligent discussion once people's names are tied to their messages.
And third, if you do make a great comment and wish to share it on your Facebook wall, you can do so with just a click of a button.
Readers are welcome to express their opinions about the news -- and about how the new Facebook comments system is working.
Jimmy Orr, the Los Angeles Times managing editor in charge of latimes.com, discusses the Facebook system in greater depth.
-- Tony Pierce
twitter.com/busblog
Sorry to hear this. I will not use FB because of its constant privacy incursions. I do not trust, for example, that if I sign in here they are not tracking me around the Web.
Some sites at least used mulitple sign ins, where I can opt for Disqus, OpenID or Yahoo. But when a site goes all FB, like the NYPost, I simply stop commenting.
This is not a good idea.
Posted by: Paul B. | June 21, 2011 at 01:42 PM
What a horrible idea. As Paul B. pointed out, the least the Times could do is allow for multiple sign-ins. Why a Facebook monopoly?
Tony Pierce touts all the benefits of this move, with no empirical evidence, then points us to Jimmy Orr's comments, which call the Facebook monopoly an "experiment." Which is it?
Posted by: patroklos | June 21, 2011 at 02:13 PM
Hi Paul,
Yes, FB has had issues with privacy. But if you don't have a FB account (I'm assuming you dont), then simply limit what info you put on FB. If you live in Santa Monica, for example, just say you live in Los Angeles. There are only a few things they require for you to enter in to get a FB account (name, email, etc). Just put in the bare minimum and use your account to comment on sites like ours, the NY Post and others.
But ultimately Facebook only knows the information you give it. Therefore, don't give it anything specific and use a generic "spam" email address (like a yahoo one) to sign in. That's what many people do.
Posted by: Tony Pierce / LA Times | June 21, 2011 at 02:47 PM