IHE eliminates comments

[polly_mer]

The IHE commentariat has moved to https://www.reddit.com/r/InsideHigherEd/

Unlike our migration from CHE, those folks got almost no notice and no forwarding address remains on the IHE site.

I mention this because often the IHE comments were more informative than the original article.

[Parasaurolophus]

Ewww, Reddit. So glad we have a forum.

[downer]

I guess they want to reduce their readership?

Reddit is the pits.

[Katrina Gulliver]

As with CHE, IHE realised their real customers are edu management, not academics. And moderating comments sections wasn't helping their bottom line.

[spork]

As with CHE, IHE realised their real customers are edu management, not academics. And moderating comments sections wasn't helping their bottom line.

Also Disqus costs money.

[polly_mer]

As with CHE, IHE realised their real customers are edu management, not academics. And moderating comments sections wasn't helping their bottom line.

Also Disqus costs money.

A post on the subreddit indicates

As I wrote in one of the last threads, per their marketing webpage they got 4.2 million visitors per month. That works out to ~140k per day. Disqus has three pricing tiers for websites:

- under 50k visitors per day: $9/month

- under 150k visitors per day: $89/month

- Over 150k visitors per day: please call us for details.


Doug underplayed this aspect of it, saying that their most recent month was around 3.7 million visitors, but I remain unconvinced that the prospect of crossing the 150k/day threshold wasn't at least part of their analysis. Given the limited data from the other two pricing tiers, that "call for details" likely translates to "A lot more money."

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/InsideHigherEd/comments/hfmtd9/decision_to_remove_commenting/  by Unemployed_NEstern


There were more than 300 comments on the article announcing the change.  A non-negligible fraction of the comments were about readers usually reading the comments first, primarily, or even just only.

I was in the category of reading many comment sections first and then seeing what the article actually stated.

[Aster]

I started to stop reading CHE articles when they made the dumb decision to remove the comments section.

Now I'm wondering how much value I'll get out of reading IHE articles, or if I'll stop reading their articles also.

The comments section of IHE and CHE news articles are usually more informative and educational than the articles themselves. They provide summaries to the articles. They provide critical feedback to the articles. They expound on the articles by providing additional information and linking accessory resources. They provide institutional and individual networking information to professional academics.

Inside Higher Education is shooting itself in the foot. Eliminating the comments section is a miserable decision.

[Ancient Fellow]

As with CHE, IHE realised their real customers are edu management, not academics.

Exactly.

[ab_grp]

I am not a fan of this move, either.  I agree that the comments often provided more information and context than the articles or opinion pieces themselves.  Plus, one could gauge from the number and variety of comments which topics were more controversial or important to the readers.  Sometimes that comments sections devolved as comments sections tend to do, but overall the content in the comments was of interest.  Also agree that is was a plus over CHE once those comments sections went away.  It seems as though readers of IHE may become less engaged with the site now.

[mamselle]

I wonder if some will find their way here.

Or maybe they already do/did...

M.

[polly_mer]

We made a good choice in refusing CHE's offer to migrate us to Reddit.  I registered to invite the IHE commenters to join us.

That interface is unpleasant and I keep getting a message like "you're doing that too much, wait 6 minutes before replying"

So I can read the whole thread, compose a post, and because it was only a few minutes to do that I can't push 'post' and have it go through immediately?! The old CHE wait time between posts was 30 seconds.  Minutes between posts on different threads is seriously inefficient.

[mamselle]

Glad you invited them!

(Play nice, people...)

;--}

M.

[Aster]

After reading this IHE article today, my mind screamed out for a comments section.

"Virtual Laboratories: Convergence of Learning and Career Practice"
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/online-trending-now/virtual-laboratories-convergence-learning-and-career

But without a comments section, I feel sick, disgusted, and imagine that the IHE may now be more liable to print just about anything. that someone submits to them.

[Hibush]

After reading this IHE article today, my mind screamed out for a comments section.

"Virtual Laboratories: Convergence of Learning and Career Practice"
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/online-trending-now/virtual-laboratories-convergence-learning-and-career

But without a comments section, I feel sick, disgusted, and imagine that the IHE may now be more liable to print just about anything. that someone submits to them.

Well, they are publishing letters to the editor instead of comments. Submit something and they just might print it.

[Bonnie]

After reading this IHE article today, my mind screamed out for a comments section.

"Virtual Laboratories: Convergence of Learning and Career Practice"
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/online-trending-now/virtual-laboratories-convergence-learning-and-career

But without a comments section, I feel sick, disgusted, and imagine that the IHE may now be more liable to print just about anything. that someone submits to them.

There is a reddit community for commenting. Not the same, of course, but perhaps check that out. https://www.reddit.com/r/InsideHigherEd/