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INTERNET COMMENTERS CAN get a bad rap sometimes.
However they play a big part here on TheJournal.ie, helping to make the site what it is. Every day somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 comments are left on the site, shaping the discussion and kickstarting some lively debates (and despite what some commenters might believe, only a tiny number ever have to be deleted…).
We’ve compiled a list of the 10 comments which received the most thumbs up from other readers this year. As you might expect, many of the most popular comments were among the first posts on a breaking news story, expressing what many people felt about an issue. Some were funny, some insightful and some were sympathetic.
So here’s the 10 comments with the most thumbs up this year (all thumb figures correct as of 20 December). And before you ask – no, we’re not going to do a list of the comments which received the most thumbs down. That would be too cruel.
1. Sarah Butler on the 41-year-old man charged with the rape and murder of Irish woman Jill Meagher in Australia got 2,829 thumbs up:
Hope he rots in hell
2. Chris Massey on the shooting of major gangland figure Eamon Kelly at the start of this month got 1,931 thumbs up:
I think people are more worried about the budget rather than the passing of a gangland criminal, no sympathy here
3. Chris Lynch on the father in Texas who killed a man who tried to sexually abuse his 4-year-old daughter got 1,816 thumbs up:
I would do the exact same thing in that situation and I would imagine every father in the world would too.
4. John Dobermann on National Text Your Ex Day got 1,756 thumbs up:
Wrong:
Me: Happy national text your ex day!
Her: You’re breaking up with me?
5. Rossa O’Connor on the former Dragon’s Den contestant who won a contract to make watches for premier league football clubs got 1,606 thumbs up:
I wish him every success, well done!
6. Mark Power on the rally held in Ballyconnell in support of the Quinn family got 1,597 thumbs up:
Baaaaaa Baaaaaa Baaaaaaa, good little sheep. Blest for the Quinn’s. MORONS
7. Kevin Hunt on how nine people were stabbed at the Swedish House Mafia concert in Dublin’s Phoenix Park got 1,541 thumbs up:
Its a sad state of affairs when you cant just go to a concert and presume your own safety
8. Darragh Gibbons on Jacintha Saldanha, the nurse who took her own life after a hoax call to the hospital where Kate Middleton was being treated, got 1,436 thumbs up:
Aside from the Aussies, what about the responsibility that should be taken by the ragtops who sensationalised the story beyond recognition. The same sites are now feasting on the poor girls death. Makes me sick to my stomach. May she rest in peace.
9. Gerard on a 69-year-old woman who said she was humiliated over a colostomy bag ordeal on a Ryanair flight got 1,373 thumbs up:
Unbelievable, my mother has a colostomy bag and I would dread to think she would be treated like this. Shame on them
10. Jason Doyle on Shannon and Erin Gallagher, the teenage sisters who took their own lives in Donegal, got 1,370 thumbs up:
What an absolute terrible tragedy. Thoughts and prayers with these poor girls parents, god love them all.
(Photos: Julien Behal/PA Wire, Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland Henryk Sadura/Shutterstock, Daniel Law/PA Archive/Press Association Images, Screengrab/RTE, Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland, Niall Carson/PA Wire, Jonathan Brady/PA Wire, Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland, Facebook)
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Any chance we could see the comments that got the most red thumbs?
No lets not encourage trolls.
These comment are only interesting in that they demonstrate an extraordinary banality of mass taste within Ireland. When it comes to positive sentiments, you’re suggestion is an excellent one. “Lets not encourage the trolls” it’s not “encouraging the trolls” its seeing the kind of sentiments people react the most strongly too and as such of at least casual interest to any thinking person.
We don’t have the list for red thumbs to hand but to be honest, even if we did I wouldn’t be crazy about posting it. Hear me out on this: a lot of the comments that get the most red thumbs are often ones that are either a) pretty awful but *just* manage to not break the comments policy and so haven’t been deleted or else b) someone’s opinion which may or may not be trolling but which is clearly antagonistic and designed to provoke (often seen on threads about suicide or politics for example).
So while it would obviously be interesting to see them, I don’t think it would be a great idea for us as a site to highlight comments like that and act like they’re being rewarded for something. Plus there is also a slight element of bullying about it: some people may have innocently shared their (unpopular) opinion in good faith and for us to single it out as an example of a bad comment would be a tad cruel.
Hope that makes sense. I did briefly think about putting together a red thumb list but all that’s what made me think it would be a bad idea.
@christine: can you say how many red thumbs the most red-thumbed comment got?
The most thumbed down comment wasn’t about the church, abortion or same sex marriage which are usually volatile stories. It was the story about the goalkeeper Chris Kirkland being attacked by a Leeds United fan. The comment which praised the passion of Leeds fans got over 1500 red thumbs in two days before eventually getting removed. Don’t ask me how I know this, I just do.
Good to see the top 10 are all (in my opinion) morally decent.
I can only dream of ever making this list :D
Keep dreaming. Your FG tendencies won’t get you there, morally inept at the best of times!!
Martyred for the Party David!
Hope for your sake that they appreciate it!
: )
You might have one or two in the red thumbs list David.Curious to see it now……..
Some day, David. Some day… :D
First time I got you a green thumb David. Like your comment :-)
So it’s yay! For populism and (in one case) vigilantism! Publish the red thumbs: be more interesting that this blend of non-entities.
Yay!
We love to willow in our populism.
Lets try beat this record.. :D
If you take their likes and subtract their thumbs down what are the top ten???
Have to agree with those above, I wonder what the highest scoring red thumbs were. Might be interesting to do a comparative of the two; as I think there’s something to be said for identifying the most unpopular (socially unacceptable) of opinions.
Give us the red thumb awards
It’s mad, every thread with comments has to have something about Love/Hate or someone’s political persuasion brought into it regardless of what it is about. Or that Phil Hogan or Enda Kenny or some other poor sod caused the trouble. Not one of the top ten has anything to do with politics but someone gets slagged off for being a member of Fine Geal, you know lads, it’s really getting beyond boredom now!
Have to agree in the beginning the comments were where the story continued now it’s being taken over by negative comments on off topic issues.
Chris Massey is honoured :)
Don’t be jealous guys…. Is there a cash prize??
i wouldnt be too cocky..you were beaten by a comment with 5 words! :)
It’s not the quantity it’s the quality, congrats
Congrats Chris. You win a one-week all-expenses-paid trip to the Journal.ie offices in luxurious, up-and-coming Dublin 8. Food (breakfast rolls from the Londis around the corner) and accommodation (you can sleep on the couch in the meeting room) are included. Well done again.
Bags packed Christine, dyin for that Londis roll!!
Good stuff. The limo should be at your door shortly.
You get a leather medal on the yay out..:-)
Number 1….
Wish it had have been better circumstances however. :(
I wondering if the biggest red thumber is a troll or someone with a load of issues, we all know of posts being deleted but what about a troll ban… not a ban for disagreeing but one for a complete idiot who comments in the negative for every post and their IP address register red thumbs only.
Just because a comment is unpopular, doesn’t mean it’s wrong.
Some can’t accept the truth, especially when it comes to politics and economics.
I’m on the top ten thumbs down list, but I’m certainly not on the demagogue list.
What about the most disliked?
We could call the most red thumbed comments, How stupid can one be?
Aside from 2, 6 and 8 all fairly deserving
I always hated your comments
8′s eaily the most deserving. But Chris speaks for ua all. :)
Cut off the thumbs lol
It would be great if you could enable a thumbs up or down only when you comment with a reason. Might stop the blue shirt brigade from trolling.
Proof of the general pointlessness of the red/green thumb system.
have your say