Testing If People Read Something Before Letting Them Comment

Comments bring engagement, but can also bring spam, trolling or hate to the page being viewed. Some sites don't allow comments, and some have tried but removed them. Comments can quickly escalate from a positive addition to the post in some way -- to add info or correct it -- but can also easily become negative or "toxic" and no longer add anything relevant to the topic at hand.

With all the spam and trolling abusers out there leaving comments, it might be better if we could test the commenter on whether they have read that content they are about to respond to. There could be a popup asking a few questions in multiple choice about what the content was about. This would filter in two ways: 1) the people who didn't read -- and likely didn't have much of relevance to add -- would have a harder time answering correctly, and 2) many people who don't really have anything meaningful to say will just not want to be bothered trying in the first place.

In order to comment, you would need to prove you actually read what you claim to be commenting about. Spam would be more easily filtered, but trolls often do read and have mean things to say just because they want to. They are willing to go through the extra effort to try to get the attention they want.

A Norwegian broadcaster, NRK, has made this decision recently, where a quiz will ask commenters about the story before letting them comment. They hope forcing people to take 15 seconds will calm them down and reduce the emotional responses and anger in quick reactionary comments. The tool will present multiple choice questions (like knowing the right acronym from the story) and ensure that everyone who does comment actually knows what they are talking about before they can comment.

“If you spend 15 seconds on it, those are maybe 15 seconds that take the edge off the rant mode when people are commenting,” said Marius Arnesen, editor of NKRbeta.

Some people might think this would work on Steemit, but despite similar issues with a lack of real engagement on posts, this wouldn't work for the blockchain because anyone can bypass the front-end sites like Steemit that would have this feature. You don't need to use a site to vote, post or comment on the blockchain.

The "toxic" comments aren't the only thing being looked at as "toxic", but whole content itself. Google recently announced it will be working with the Vietnamese communist government to quash "toxic" content and "illegal information" from Google. As usual with communist controllers, they don't tolerate much dissent. Anti-government talk is toxic to the commie government. No kidding.

Google is eying Vietnam since it's one of Asia's fastest growing economies, which makes it a hot target for investment, like developing global consumer brands. It has worked well in other places like China, despite their continued silence of dissidents.

I think it's interesting and worth a try. If you really want to comment, you can answer 4 questions about what you read. It's a small price to pay to make sure other people are doing the same. Too bad the only way to combat comment spam or whatnot on Steem right now is individually by telling people about their comments or with flags. A feature would work for the people who use the front-end sites like steemit, busy, etc., but not for people who spam with bots or use the backend to input data into the blockchain. However, it would reduce the load of crap comments coming from the interface sites at least. I don't think it will ever be implemented, but it's an interesting idea I wanted to present anyways :P

Do you like the idea of testing or quizzing before commenting?
Will this help get rid of useless comments alone, or also reduce the overall amount of relevant comments?

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Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.

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