GoComics has posted a notice toward the top of all the editorial cartoon pages (highlighted in orange) that, due to their outdated AI monitoring tools being unable to control the divisive commenting on their platform, for the remainder of this election year commenting will be disabled for political cartoons on their site.
As of July 17, 2024, GocComics will no longer offer commenting on political cartoons. Our goal is to foster an engaged, thoughtful community. However, maintaining a respectful environment has become increasingly difficult given the divisive nature of certain topics and the tendencies of some to provoke controversy as the 2024 election approaches.
On top of this, GoComics uses an outdated commenting tool that lacks the capability to effectively moderate the comments and ensure compliance with the site’s commenting policy.
Given these circumstances, we’ve made the difficult decision to remove commenting from political cartoons. This is likely not a permanent measure—we hope to reinstate comments in 2025 with an improved commenting platform.
We appreciate your understanding as we work to uphold the integrity of the GoComics community.
The comment ban apparently does not apply to comic strips with a political edge. as Scott Stantis editorials meet the description but his Prickly City does not. Notice the orange notice above one and not the other.
The same standard applies to Mike Lester’s editoons but not Mike Lester’s Mike du Jour comic strip.
(Though Mike du Jour is not tinted with political commentary as much as Prickly City.)
Looks like the mostly political Sunday Doonesbury will be exempt from the comment ban.
What, GoComics had moderators? Could’ve fooled me. I’m no newbie to comments pages and that was one of the most toxic I had seen.
I always found Comics Kingdom’s to be worse, until they broke their site.
I agree with you there; I checked them a few times and they were so virulent, I never tried to look at them again, let alone leave a comment. I really learned a lot from serious and thoughtful posters on GoComics which I found as a valuable source for exploring issues I may not have been aware of otherwise. Yes, there were trolls, but they were easily identifiable and avoidable, and not nearly as awful as the ones on Comics Kingdom.
Just went thru my daily comics on the page and have noticed all the political cartoons still have comments, anywhere from two to six hours old.
They are gone now on mine.
They are all gone! No comments left at any political cartoon ever posted at GoComics.
Even Pat Oliphant’s editoons from 1980!
The majority of comments my cartoons get at GoComics seem to be negative but far from toxic. The same freedom that allows editorial cartoonists to present their opinions should also apply to people who have comments to share. Agree that there’s a line, but I’d say their algorithm does a decent job protecting that line. Hopefully, they’re back up soon.
Your cartoons are great because they convey your point of view in a humorous way without intentionally inflaming the easily inflamed. That’s why I believe you always have an over-flowing comment section with “interesting” opinions chucked from both sides. I’m looking forward to their return.