Doubling Down on Community: A Generational Opportunity for Publishers

As a publishing executive, you’re no stranger to the shifting sands of digital media. The days of relying on cheap traffic from social media are gone. Today’s audiences are fragmented across multiple platforms, while third-party cookies, once the backbone of targeted advertising, are quickly being phased out. These changes bring challenges, but they also present an unprecedented opportunity to transform how your organization engages with its readers. By cultivating a loyal, engaged community directly on your own platform, you will deepen relationships, unlock new revenue streams, and future-proof your business against ongoing market disruptions. 

This post explores key insights from a recent session hosted by Viafoura at the ONA24 conference titled, “Doubling Down on Community.”

The New Imperative: Owning Your Audience

The publishing industry has long faced an existential challenge—audience ownership. For years, tech companies like Facebook, Twitter (now X) and Instagram provided platforms where readers could consume and discuss content. However, these social platforms have shifted priorities away from news. As Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, put it on Threads, “Politics and hard news are important, I don’t want to imply otherwise. But my take is, from a platform’s perspective, any incremental engagement or revenue they might drive is not at all worth the scrutiny, negativity (let’s be honest), or integrity risks that come along with them.” 

The truth: If you’re not the one owning the conversation around your content, someone else is—and they’re monetizing it. Anthony De Rosa from On_Discourse framed this aptly: “Media companies have allowed tech companies to steal their content and monetize it by providing a platform for readers to discuss it. How absurd is that?

The solution? Building your community.

By cultivating an engaged and loyal audience on your own platform, you control not only the conversation but the data, the engagement, and—most critically—the revenue potential. 

When asked, here’s how the participants at ONA defined Community:

Some descriptions came as no surprise: connection, togetherness, engagement, while the most prominent term—trust—drove quite a bit of discussion. More on this later…

Community As a Strategic Priority for Publishers

For publishing executives, the strategic value of building a community extends beyond engagement—it directly impacts the business bottom line. Here’s what we know about the value of community members from Viafoura’s global research: 

  1. Generate 5x more revenue than non-community members.
  2. Visit 45x more frequently than the general audience.
  3. Spend 5.3x more time on-site, driving higher ad impressions and boosting subscription opportunities 

These metrics point to a broader trend: engaged communities are the linchpin of future audience growth.

The Business Case for Community-Driven Revenue

The data is compelling: active community members are more likely to subscribe, less likely to churn, and more engaged overall. But beyond the direct engagement metrics, what makes community an essential driver of revenue growth?

  1. First-Party Data Collection: As third-party cookies fade, publishers must adopt first-party data strategies. Communities offer high-value data for targeted content, personalized experiences, and better ads.
  2. Increased Subscription Revenue: Community members are 31% more likely to subscribe and 2.5x less likely to churn. Exclusive community content and engagement tiers can drive subscriptions and reduce churn.
  3. Optimized Ad Revenue: Communities boost dwell time and page views. First-party data enables precise targeting and higher CPMs, while ads within communities offer new revenue streams.
  4. Higher Retention Rates: Communities foster belonging, encouraging users to return through interactive features like comments, events, and user-generated content.

The 3 Foundational Pillars of Building a Successful Community Strategy

To reap the benefits of community, it’s critical to recognize that community is a significant driver of business value — it’s not simply community for community’s sake. Viafoura has outlined three critical pillars of community building success: intention, cultivation, and operationalization.

1. Intention: Tie Community Engagement to Revenue on Day 01

Community is no longer a “nice-to-have”—it’s a core business strategy, with a front seat at the table. Set clear objectives and align your teams around building a loyal, engaged audience around your North Star metrics: converting engaged community members. 

  • Define your success criteria – get as specific as possible 
  • Build the business case  – Community =  Direct Ad Activation + Engagement Lift for Time on Site Attributable to Community + Conversion (Registration + Subscription lift) 
  • Map Your Ownership Framework – Who owns what, what is their  level of disruption, and how long are the stakeholders engaged? 

These practices are designed to mobilize around a key goal, and hold teams accountable to driving results. A successful community strategy is not just the responsibility of your product or engagement teams—it must be embraced across the organization, with clear ownership and resource allocation.

2. Cultivation: Creating Safe, Engaging Spaces 

Managing communities at scales is very hard. Language is ever evolving, trends move quickly and above all it’s nearly impossible to monitor with exclusive human, or exclusively systems. The biggest factor in the crux community is on the line, bringing us back to the concept of TRUST. Trust built by your community to engage in safe spaces, trust from your editorial staff that they can engage in a civil way, and trust from the brand that community meets brand guidelines.

There are two sides of the coin to consider: 

  • Silencing the Bad: Set up systems and processes in place to disable negative comments. Think: spam prevention, banned words disabling, auto moderation for sentiment and context, and including a human in review. 
  • Promoting the Good: Using advanced sentiment scoring, highlight positive engagement at scale to boost your highest quality community engagements to the top of conversations.  Viafoura’s recent Top Comments feature does just this. 

3. Operationalization: Scaling Community Engagement

Scaling a community requires effective, structured strategies ranging from Low to High lift using playbooks and cadences to operationalize community efforts. The core 3 examples covered in market currently highlight: 

  • Live Broadcast Engagement: Driving TV audiences to your digital properties to ask questions answered by hosts directly on air. This is a big win building rituals and offering a unique value proposition for subscribers 
  • Editorial Recirculation: Using community sections to inspire follow up content for editors, and launching new highlights in newsletters. 
  • Live Events Operationalization: Pre-moderated AMAs connecting podcasters, spotlight journalists or featured specialists to audiences directly. Pair with advertising teams for sponsored activations here. 

Moreover, operationalization is about aligning your community strategy with broader business goals. For instance, by tying community engagement to subscription models or using community data to enhance ad revenue, you can ensure that community-building directly contributes to the bottom line from day one.

The Future of Publishing: Communities as Competitive Differentiators

 As the publishing industry continues to evolve, those who invest in building loyal, active communities will emerge as the leaders in audience engagement and monetization. For executives, the question is no longer whether to build a community, but how to do so effectively and at scale. 

By treating community as a strategic priority, focusing on intentional cultivation, and operationalizing engagement at every level, you can position your organization to thrive in the future of publishing. Communities are no longer just a way to engage readers—they are a critical engine for growth, loyalty, and revenue in the digital age.

If you’re ready to build a thriving community, partner with Viafoura. Our platform equips you with the tools and insights to engage, activate, and monetize your audience with ease. Now is the time to act—don’t miss out on this generational opportunity.

Viafoura’s Community Engagement Tools Now Live Across McClatchy Sites!

We’re excited to share that Viafoura’s full suite of community engagement tools is now live across McClatchy’s 29 daily newspapers. As a prominent American publishing company with a weekly circulation exceeding 10 million across 14 states, McClatchy is dedicated to empowering communities through quality journalism. This launch marks a transformative step in digital storytelling and community building for a company that remains steadfast in its commitment to the communities it serves.

Kat Sheplavy, Sr. Director of New Products & Experiences at McClatchy, shared her excitement about the partnership:

“We chose Viafoura because of their best-in-class suite of products, incredible team, excellent track record of human and AI moderators, and unwavering dedication to building community across online publishers. The Viafoura team is among the best I have ever worked with. They are super organized, incredibly responsive, and dedicated to ensuring we meet our goals. Viafoura has already changed the digital experience across McClatchy properties by giving our audience a platform for productive conversations and enabling our engagement editors to focus on meaningful interactions.”

Kat SheplavySr. Director of New Products & Experiences

As McClatchy continues to innovate in the digital space, the Viafoura tools will play a pivotal role in enhancing key areas of the business including: 

  • Increase in Registrations (Unknown → Known)
  • Improved Retention Rate
  • Time Saved on Moderation
  • Speed to Market to Publish Live Blogs
  • Increased Engagement (Time on Site + Return Visits)

Mark Zohar, CEO of Viafoura, highlighted the strategic alignment between the two companies:

Our partnership with McClatchy is a perfect example of how strategic alignment can drive innovation and growth. By integrating Viafoura’s community engagement tools, McClatchy is not only enhancing its digital offerings but also fostering stronger, more meaningful connections with its readers, driving real business impact. We are proud to support McClatchy’s mission of strengthening communities through quality journalism.

This launch is just the beginning. We are excited to continue working closely with McClatchy to build a vibrant, engaged, and safe online community that aligns with their high standards of moderation and safety.

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to bring our community engagement solutions to life across McClatchy’s digital properties!

Gambling.com Selects Viafoura for Enhancing User Engagement and Community Building!

We are thrilled to announce that Gambling.com Group has chosen Viafoura to elevate their digital experience and community engagement. Gambling.com Group is a premier provider of digital marketing services for the online gambling industry. With an extensive network of over 50 websites in 16 countries and 9 languages, Gambling.com Group is a global leader in delivering comprehensive gambling guides and reviews. Their significant operations span four worldwide locations, making them a powerhouse in the industry.

Casinos.com reached their next chapter in their growth journey, looking to solve for 3 key areas:

  • Grow registrations: Create an increased direct relationship with users 
  • Create a rich community built around content: Engaging with communities directly resulting in increased time on site and pageviews 
  • Increase revenue through engagement lift: Create new areas of opportunity for revenue generation 

“Viafoura's platform seamlessly integrates with our existing systems, enhances our user engagement, and creates a welcoming environment for members of the Casinos.com community, which is crucial for our growth strategy. Viafoura’s content moderation capabilities will allow us to maintain compatibility with regulatory compliance requirements, and the AI moderation helps reduce the burden on our content moderation team.”

Niall CusackSoftware Development Manager at Gambling.com Group

Viafoura enables Casinos.com to foster a vibrant online community, and deliver higher-quality offerings based on community insights using the core conversational experience, and cutting-edge moderation AI technology.  

“We are also excited about the custom integrations we have implemented.” Niall mentioned, “We have integrated with Customer.io to capture email opt-ins during the registration process, which will extend our abilities to engage with and best serve our growing community.”

Dalia Vainer, Director of Customer Experience at Viafoura, stated, “We are incredibly excited to launch this partnership with Gambling.com Group to create engaged, meaningful experiences for their communities. We look forward to being a strategic partner in driving their key business goals.”

We look forward to a successful collaboration with Gambling.com Group and are committed to supporting their goals of enhancing user engagement and building a rich online community. Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting journey!

Viafoura Celebrates New G2 Badges for Excellence in Digital Engagement

We are excited to share a big milestone at Viafoura: a record-breaking 7 new badges and 16 new reports on G2 for Summer 2024! These badges, awarded by G2, the global software marketplace, are more than just accolades—they represent our unwavering commitment to delivering exceptional solutions and fostering deep connections between brands and their audiences.

Some of the wins include:

  • #1 for Best Results & Best Est. ROI (Mid-Market Results Index for Online Community Management):  Highlights Viafoura’s dedication to delivering tangible results and a strong return on investment. We are committed to seeing the throughline of results in our customers’ community management strategies, and ensuring we build a sustainable future for journalism.
  • #1 for Most Implementable (Mid Market Implementation Index for Online Community Management): Recognized for our commitment to seamless integration and efficient deployment of our online community management tools. It demonstrates our ability to deliver practical and impactful solutions that meet our customers’ implementation needs swiftly and effectively.
  • Momentum Leader (Momentum Grid Report for Commenting Systems): Reflecting our platform’s ability to drive continuous improvement and innovation, resulting in market-leading technology with real impact.
  • High Performer (Grid Report for Commenting Systems, Mid-Market Grid Report for Online Community Management, Grid Report for Online Community Management):  We are proud to be recognized for our excellence and leadership in digital engagement and community management across multiple categories.

“This marks the 8th quarter in a row that Viafoura is setting a new standard of excellence for the industry, reflecting our team’s dedication to empowering brands to connect meaningfully with their audiences. It’s great to be recognized by our customers for driving measurable ROI and results across hundreds of global media sites.” said Mark Zohar, Chief Executive Officer. “I am very proud of the work done by every Viafouran, and excited to continue to help brands activate their audience through the power of community engagement.”

See below for a couple of standout reviews from this last quarter: 

  • ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Viafoura actively supports our subscription business by providing a value proposition for users to become registrants and for registrants to become paying customers.” 
  • ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Viafoura addresses key challenges in digital publishing … and leads to improved user experience, increased site participation, and better content management.”
  • ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “En plus de la facilité à intégrer le module sur nos plateformes, nous sommes très satisfaits de l’accompagnement offert par l’équipe de Viafoura.”

Again, a big thank you to our customers for recognizing Viafoura this last quarter as the leader in community software across multiple categories. We look forward to continuing this journey of innovation and delivering even greater value!

To learn more about Viafoura’s award-winning solutions and explore why we’ve earned these prestigious G2 badges, visit our G2 profile

Thank you for celebrating these achievements with us!

Embracing Community over Audience: A Strategic Shift for Brands

Embracing Community over Audience: A Strategic Shift for Brands

In today’s rapidly evolving attention economy, media brands face the challenge of not just attracting but also engaging and retaining their target audiences. In order to compete against Facebook, Instagram and Tik Tok for user attention, brands need to shift their focus from audience acquisition and start building active and loyal communities that attract creatives, collaborators and connectors. This shift, which Brian Morrissey has dubbed depth over breadth, is crucial for fostering deeper connections, enhancing engagement, and ultimately driving greater revenue and retention.

From Passive Audiences to Active Communities

Traditional brand content experiences often result in passive and fleeting audience engagement. These audiences are largely disengaged and unmotivated, offering limited value to brands. In contrast, communities are characterized by active participation, collaboration, creativity, and a strong sense of connection and loyalty. As community-building expert Greg Isenberg notes, building such communities involves several key elements:

  1. Togetherness: Providing spaces for collective interaction.
  2. Rituals: Establishing regular activities that foster a sense of routine.
  3. Identity: Cultivating a shared sense of purpose among members.
  4. Belonging: Creating a feeling of being part of something larger.
  5. Engagement: Encouraging ongoing contribution and interaction independent of direct brand involvement.

The Viafoura Digital Experience Platform: Enabling Community Building

Viafoura’s Digital Experience Platform (DXP) is at the forefront of this transformation, offering a comprehensive suite of tools designed to enhance user engagement, personalization and data utilization. Trusted by over 800 global media brands, Viafoura’s DXP empowers brands to create dynamic, interactive communities through features such as:

  • Engagement Suite: Facilitates real-time interactions with conversations, live Q&A sessions, and polls.
  • Moderation Tools: Combines AI and human moderation to maintain respectful and relevant discourse.
  • Personalization: Delivers tailored content recommendations and personalized feeds.
  • Data Insights: Leverages first-party data for deep user behavior insights, driving targeted engagement strategies.

The Transformative Impact of Community Members

Community members significantly outperform standard audiences in terms of engagement and revenue generation. According to Viafoura’s data:

  • Community members have a 5.3x higher increase in dwell time compared to regular audiences.
  • They are 45x more likely to subscribe.
  • They drive 3x more site visits.

These statistics highlight the outsized impact that engaged community members can have on a brand’s success. By focusing on building and nurturing communities, brands can achieve higher levels of engagement, loyalty, and ultimately, profitability.

Practical Steps for Building Robust Communities

To build thriving communities, brands should consider the following steps:

  1. Define Your Community’s Purpose: Clearly communicate the community’s goals and values to attract like-minded individuals.
  2. Create Valuable Content: Consistently provide content that is relevant, informative, and engaging. This will keep members interested and active within the community.
  3. Encourage Interaction: Use interactive tools like real-time comments, live chats, Q&A sessions, and polls to facilitate real-time interaction among members.
  4. Recognize and Reward Contributions: Acknowledge active members and reward their contributions. This can be done through shout-outs, badges, or exclusive content.
  5. Leverage Data: Use first-party data to understand your members better and tailor your engagement strategies accordingly.

Conclusion

The shift from an audience-centric to a community-focused strategy is imperative for success in today’s attention economy. Viafoura’s digital experience platform provides the tools necessary to make this transition, enabling brands to create engaging, personalized, and data-driven experiences. By fostering a sense of togetherness, establishing rituals, and encouraging ongoing engagement, brands can build loyal communities that drive substantial value.

Welcoming Maine Trust for Local News to the Viafoura Family!

Viafoura is excited to announce our latest collaboration with Maine Trust for Local News. The Maine Trust for Local News is the state’s largest network of independent news and media outlets, which together form an essential part of daily life in Maine. With 158 journalists on staff, we serve audiences through our 5 daily newspapers and 15 hyper-local weekly newspapers, in print and online. We cover what matters to Maine, putting a spotlight on issues of vital importance to our people, community and state. The Maine Trust for Local News is a subsidiary of the National Trust for Local News, a non-profit committed to conserving and operating vibrant, sustainable local news enterprises across the country.

Led by Matt Fulton, Chief Audience Officer, and Karen Beaudoin, Vice President of Digital Product Development, Maine Trust for Local News has a clear vision: to drive registrations and subscriptions while building vibrant digital communities. They selected Viafoura to achieve these goals, after carefully considering how our solutions aligned with their strategic objectives and operational challenges.

Matt and Karen emphasized their need for a platform that could support engaging community discussions safely while allowing their newsroom to focus on promoting our journalism and digital storytelling. Viafoura’s comprehensive suite of products, including Conversations, Community Chat, AI Content Moderation, and our Analytics Insights, provided the perfect fit. They appreciated the thorough and attentive onboarding process, which ensured a seamless integration.

This partnership is set to redefine the digital experience for their readers, encouraging more active participation and fostering a stronger sense of community.

The team at Maine Trust for Local News expects uplifts in these core areas of focus:

  • Increased registration and known users
  • A more personalized user experience
  • Higher engagement levels
  • Improved subscriber retention

Mark Zohar, Viafoura President & CEO, shares his thoughts on the partnership: “Our collaboration with Maine Trust for Local News is a perfect example of how our solutions can drive meaningful engagement and community building. We are proud to help them achieve their digital growth objectives and enhance the overall experience for their audience.”

We are proud to support Maine Trust for Local News in their mission and look forward to driving innovation and engagement together. Welcome to the Viafoura family, Maine Trust for Local News!

Stay connected with us for more updates on more exciting partnerships & more!

Wise Publishing Partners with Viafoura to Enhance Community Engagement!

We are thrilled to announce that Wise Publishing has partnered with Viafoura to enhance community engagement and provide a richer, more interactive experience for readers on Money.ca. Reaching over 10 million monthly unique readers globally, Wise Publishing operates leading digital personal finance publications including MoneyWise.com, Money.ca, and MoneyWise.co.uk. Their commitment to delivering high-quality financial information aligns perfectly with our mission at Viafoura: to empower online communities with advanced engagement tools.

Shane Murphy, Manager of Email at Wise Publishing, spearheads this exciting new chapter.

“Viafoura offers a diverse set of tools that will help us boost organic sign-ups and increase on-page engagement. We were particularly impressed by Viafoura’s extensive roster of media partners both in North America and abroad. Compared to its competitors, Viafoura provides excellent value for the services it offers, making it the ideal choice for us.”

Shane MurphyManager of Email

Implementing Viafoura’s solutions, including Conversations & AMA, Content Moderation Solution, and Analytics Insights, will significantly enhance the digital experience to achieve several key outcomes:

  • Increase in Organic Sign-Ups: By leveraging Viafoura’s tools, Wise Publishing expects a boost in user registrations.
  • Enhanced On-Page Engagement: The interactive features will encourage readers to spend more time engaging with the content.
  • Community Building: Creating a vibrant, engaged community around their content is a top priority.

“We’re incredibly excited to work with Wise Publishing and support their mission of providing top-notch financial information to consumers worldwide. Our tools are designed to create more high-value exchange moments, and we’re confident they will help build a strong foundation of community engagement on Money.ca,” said Dalia Vainer, Director of Customer Experience at Viafoura. 

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to roll out Viafoura’s engagement solutions across Wise Publishing’s platforms. We invite you to experience the enhanced community features on Money.ca and see how we’re transforming the digital landscape together.

Les Coops de L’Information Partners with Viafoura for Enhanced Digital Engagement

We are thrilled to announce that Viafoura has partnered with Les Coops de l’information to bring an enriched digital experience to their esteemed regional media outlets, including  Le Droit, Le Nouvelliste, Le Quotidien, Le Soleil, La Tribune, and La Voix de l’Est. Dedicated to delivering daily local news on significant issues, Les Coops is deeply rooted in their respective communities, playing a vital role in the growth and vitality of the regions they serve.

Marc Gendron, Directeur Principal, Croissance Numérique et Éditeur chez Le Soleil, & Kim Alarie, Coordonnatrice à la croissance numérique, highlighted the primary challenge: extending the lifetime value of a user and enhancing customer satisfaction.

Marc and Kim emphasized the importance of a reliable moderation process tailored to their specific needs.

“For us, complete confidence in the moderation process was non-negotiable. It was essential that the people in charge of moderation were completely fluent in French and could understand the subtleties of French from Québec. Viafoura has a moderation team based in Montreal and serves many French-speaking editorial clients. And they are fellow Canadians too! That was enough to give us the necessary confidence.”

Marc Gendron | Kim AlarieDirecteur Principal, Croissance Numérique et Éditeur chez La Soleil | Coordonnatrice Croissance numérique

Our solution for Les Coops de l’information includes:

Leigh Adams, Head of Moderation at Viafoura, shared her enthusiasm: “We are delighted to work with Les Coops de L’information! Our moderation team is committed to maintaining a respectful and engaging community environment, & given our expertise in moderating French-language content and understanding the unique nuances of Québec French, we are confident in our ability to support their goals of fostering meaningful conversations and enhancing user engagement!

Les Coops de L’information anticipates significant improvements in digital engagement. Marc and Kim expressed their expectations: “We hope that it will help us build a community around our contents and products. We do hope too that the conversation will be transferred on our own properties instead of occurring in third-party social platforms. This will contribute highly in driving the engagement and increasing the recency, frequency, and volume of visits and content consumption.”

We are excited about this partnership and the enhanced digital engagement it will bring to Les Coops de l’information!

Bridging Online Divides: A Guide to Comment Moderation, Internet Etiquette, and Increased Civility

As a news fiend, a data enthusiast, and amateur philosopher, I spend my days pondering the future of the media industry and developing best practices to make the internet a better/safer/more inclusive place.

It’s an interesting time to say the least.

We’ve bounced back to regular norms in almost every way post Covid era but there’s one area that continues to grow for connectivity: the comment section.

  • Will Trump win the next election? 
  • Will Caitlin Clark’s surgance in the WNBA turn a new leaf for the sport?
  • Was Jeremey from Love is Blind engaged while filming for the show?

We can share our hopes, our fears, our thoughts, our opinions, with everyone, everywhere, within seconds. In these times of economic uncertainty, and political animosity, comment sections have been transformed into a veritable battleground that my team and I wade into daily.

And publishers are stuck in the middle. As they strive to provide a space for their readers to engage, and exchange ideas, they are faced with increasingly divisive rhetoric, calls for free speech competing with increasing attempts to legislate online accountability.

I have spent over 15 years wading into the comments, keeping the pulse on how users react when news breaks, and the last few years have seen an unparalleled rise in incivility. When I meet with our clients to address this challenge, we look at what we can solve with our technology and the latest features, and quite often we’ll talk about how they want users to behave, without actually spelling it out. In the coming weeks I’ll dive deeper into what publishers can do, but ultimately comment sections are there for the users, and I firmly believe that is where change needs to start. Publishers write the rules of engagement, moderators enforce them, but only users can actually create a community. 

My years of watching communities grow, and fight, and celebrate has given me perspective on what does and does not work when it comes to responding to others online, guiding principles for how to model constructive criticism and civility. 

With a small dose of mindfulness and compassion, you can help make comment sections what they are meant to be, and what the majority of readers want them to bea place where people of all stripes and colors can engage in an open, and civilized exchange of ideas.

  1. Pause Before You Post:
    It’s easy to get caught up in the heat of the moment and fire off a hastily composed response. Take a moment to consider the tone and content of your comment. Imagine you were using your real name. Ask yourself: Is it constructive? Is it respectful? Will it contribute positively to the conversation? If the answer to any of these questions is no, then maybe it’s best left unsaid.
  2. Keep It Civil:
    Remember that behind every username is a real person with thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Avoid personal attacks, insults, and derogatory language. We all have an uncle or grandparent who might not share our views on housing affordability, or who will win the Superbowl, and yet, we manage to converse without calling them names. Disagreement is natural, but how you choose to express it is often the difference between “content enabled” and “content deactivated.” Fun fact: moderators are trained to work against bias and will not remove comments simply because they don’t like what you said – over 95% of comments that are removed for personal attacks could be approved if they were edited to follow this rule. It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it
  3. Stick To The Topic:
    Stay on topic and relevant to the discussion at hand. While everything can be connected through enough tangents, comments should remain relevant to the primary thrust of the page.  Off-topic remarks can derail conversations and lead to confusion and frustration for other participants. Fun fact #2: Comments about moderation are almost always off-topic
  4. Fact-Check Before You Share:
    Publishers are increasingly cracking down on mis/disinformation that can spread like wildfire in commenting sections. Misleading or false information can stoke the flames, and contribute to confusion and misunderstandings. Take the time to fact-check your sources and provide evidence to support your claims beyond the original source. You can check out Google’s fact checking tools and tips here.
  5. Fight Fair:
    If someone offers constructive criticism or differing viewpoints, repeat step 1. Before responding, try to understand where they might be coming from, to approach it with an open mind. Engage in thoughtful discussion and be willing to reconsider your own perspectives. Remember, it’s okay to agree to disagree respectfully. And admitting you are wrong can go a long way to bridging divides.
  6. Don’t Feed the Trolls, Report Them:
    When you (inevitably) encounter users who do not play by these principles, it can be tempting to jump in and point out their missteps, tell them how wrong they are, or correct their misinformation. However, the most productive thing you can do is to not further escalate the conflict, but use flagging or reporting tools available on-site to let moderators know so they can take action. But be careful! Reporting content that doesn’t violate guidelines may land you in the hot seat.

Navigating online comment sections can be a daunting task, but with a commitment to civility, respect, and thoughtful engagement, you can help create a more positive and constructive digital environment. Remember, behind every screen is a human being deserving of empathy and understanding. So the next time you venture into the wild west of online commentary, do so with kindness and integrity.

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