No, not us. Not yet. But I’m not going to lie: I dig it.
Jezebel’s editor last week announced the site was designating a “Tier 1” level of privileged contributors whose comments are “funniest, thoughtful, intelligent, well-argued” and who have proven themselves “engaged, intelligent, humorous, fair-minded, thoughtful, rational, etc.”
Their comments will be shown below each blog post. All others, in Tier 2, will be available only if a user clicks to see them. Tier 1 commenters, in addition, will have the right to bump comments from others up or down. Editors, ultimately, will have the final say.
Atheist commenters: Automatic Tier 1. No, seriously, what do people think of this? When I mentioned it to the boss, she worried that a tiered system would destroy the chat room feel that a lot of threads have (especially longer ones), but that could be fixed by giving each user the option of viewing tiered or untiered. The default would be tiered, letting casual/non-commenting readers see the best of the best when they read a post; regulars could turn the default off and go back to chat room mode. A tiered system would also give us an option short of banning people for bad behavior. My main concern is that feelings will inevitably be hurt when some people end up in Tier 2, but the consolation there, I guess, is that then they can berate me for being an elitist RINO poseur. Even more than usual, I mean.
I think we need to poll it.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member