Evaluating the Space

So how have the comment sections in online newspapers remediated the letter to the editor? I will attempt to evaluate this through a set of criteria that are explicitly working in comparison to the criteria set up for the letter to the editor:

• Word Count:
  L.T.E. are kept at 150 words. The comment text box has a character limit, but there are no limits on how many text boxes you can occupy.
• Censorship: This is fascinating. The rules on censorship (or “moderation” as the paper calls it) seem to come directly from the history of the letter’s format:
  “We are interested in articulate, well-informed remarks that are relevant to the article. We welcome your advice, your criticism and your unique insights into the issues of the day”
  “Our standards for taste are reflected in the articles we publish in the newspaper and on NYTimes.com; we expect your comments to follow that example. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence and SHOUTING.”
  According to the rules, each comment is screened and either accepted or rejected, but never edited. Interestingly, there is a new feature called the “trusted commenter”. After enough accepted posts, the user’s comments are no longer moderated. So technically you could play the game long enough to become a trusted commenter and then start posting anything you want…other users can “flag” comments, and then it’s up to the paper to remove or not.
  A final note on censorship: most of the hot topic articles that you would expect to generate some serious controversy (such as immigration) are not open to comments.
  
• Immediacy:                                                                                                                                While a letter to the editor must refer to an article published within the last seven days, and of course can’t be published on the same day, the comment section is available to old as well as new articles and can appear instantaneously. 
  
• Audience:
  To be allowed to post a comment the you must engage in threading. You have to either post a reply to a comment or recommend the comment (this can mean recommending to your facebook page, to an email, or just as a part of your user profile). The audience is the web, not the editor, or the author of the article. Scrolling through a long list of comments can often lead into a completely tangential or personal conversation between users. Since you aren’t required to respond to another user the flow of the conversation can at any time be interrupted or redirected by a new comment. 
  • Capacity to effect change: The letter to the editor has the power to inspire a rebuttal from the author, an apology, a series of new articles, a retraction, the list goes on...A comment seems to have (of course there are exceptions) none of these instruments of change built into its inherent structure or purpose. For example, what change would come from the comment below? Now imagine a well written letter published in the Times requesting further discussion of the privatization of college...