Yahoo Pulls News Discussion Feature

Got an opinion? Keep it to yourself.

Yahoo quietly pulled a discussion feature from its news site in recent weeks. Before, readers were allowed to post comments on individual news stories. The message boards were suspended, according to a note from Yahoo's general manager for news, Neil Budde, because they allowed "a small number of vocal users to dominate the discussion."

Commenters on Yahoo message boards are not a mild mannered bunch they can range from thoughtful and articulate to downright luny. Comments on any random Yahoo news story might have included bizarre rants about the war in Iraq or odd observations about Jon Stewart's hair.

Yahoo says it is taking comments on news stories offline until it rolls out discussion forums based on news topics, which it hopes, will "foster a better discussion for all of our readers."

In fact, few news organizations allow readers to freely publish comments on the Web. CNN.com ran comments alongside its news stories years ago, but according to spokeswoman Jennifer Martin, they were never unmonitored.

"As a global news brand, we're committed to making sure that everything we publish stands up to the strictest standards and practices possible," Martin says. "We want to make sure that if a perspective is submitted by somebody, it actually comes from that person."