Comments to be restricted on the Coventry Telegraph website?

[dutchman]

There has been an interesting development on the Daily Mirror website. Comments can now only be posted there via a Facebook account. Below is an example of the message on their web pages:



Trinity-Mirror is parent company of the Coventry Telegraph and many other regional newspapers. So will a Facebook account soon be needed before anyone can post comments on the Coventry Telegraph website?

I'm sure whatever decision is made or has already been made the website editor of the Coventry Telegraph will be the last person to be told!

[Spuffler]

Must think they are part of Murdoch's empire.....

[dutchman]

The problem for the Coventry Telegraph is that they aren't allowed to design their own website. They're supplied with a template by Trinity-Mirror head office which is the same for all local newspapers within the Trinity-Mirror newspaper group. If that template accepts comments only from Facebook or Twitter account users there is nothing the local management can do about it. Personally I have no intention of opening a Facebook account just so I can comment on a Coventry Telegraph article.

Something which baffles me about the entire newspaper industry's apparent enthusiasm for so-called 'social networks', if everyone gets their news from Facebook and Twitter why would they need a newspaper any more?

[dutchman]

Just a reminder that anything published in the Coventry Telegraph can also be discussed here

[Spuffler]

I won't have a Facebook, Twitter, or Bebo account on principle. These "networks" replace friendships and human interaction, and I think they are destructive of society. There was recently an article by a woman in her forties who lives alone; she said she has hundreds of Facebook "friends", but feels devastatingly lonely, can't get a man friend, and the future looks very bleak. She had a good career, but nothing more. Such is the legacy of electronic "networking", and I abhor it.