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One Comment Says A Lot: Here's Why We're Grateful

We want to say thank you.

Our colleague Kate Myers has been helping us look back on The Two-Way's year — the most popular posts, the most frequent commenters, the heaviest traffic days and other such measures. We'll share some of what she's found in coming days.

But something Kate just turned up strikes us as worth noting right away.

The "most liked" comment from a reader (since our new comments system went into effect in mid-September) was this, from "Wandering Wotan" on the day of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.:

"By last reports, 27 are dead including a dozen eight- and nine-year olds. If you cannot comment thoughtfully or with a modicum of compassion, better to not comment at all."

Often, we all focus on the rude or insensitive things said in comment threads. They certainly can be distracting.

But that comment from Wandering Wotan and the fact that it was "liked" 525 times as of today reminds us that Two-Way readers are also often kind and considerate. Many of you come to the blog with constructive things to say about the day's news. Many of you help us keep the conversations going. And many of you point out our mistakes or how we could have done some things better.

We appreciate all that.

Thank you.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.