Would people prefer it if we turned off commenting on reports of fatalities?

No. Freedom of speech. If people want to be assholes, let them. Then at least we know who they are.

Leave them on. Add at least a "report comment" button and consider a "dislike" one. It's better if comments are in one place rather than 1001 forum threads.

off ....

off please. Some of the recent comments have been completely inappropriate

Agree with shouldbeinbed above.

One minor side point though is that mainstream media news reporting on such incidents is not above sneaking in bits of editorialising and opinion even in the reports themselves. Most notably the 'was/was not wearing a helmet' stuff.

Tricky. You could leave the names out and moderate the comments. The problem with media reports of these inquests is that they tend to be long on human interest and short on the mechanics of what went wrong. The latter are of more use in avoiding a repetition. It's a cycling forum. I'm not sure there's anything particularly distasteful in references to Google Maps. I rather doubt whether anything on here is going to make any difference to the suffering of the poor young woman's family and friends.

Off for me. I think anybody who has spent time on almost any forum will have come across the sort of person that is entirely convinced the rules and in many cases common sense and decency apply to everyone else but not them. There will always be somebody who will push the limit or expect to sell their own deeply rooted agenda and spark a response.

I'd also echo the piffling impact of a succession of bland RIP messages trotted out almost by rote by complete strangers that would be the response to any of these sad reports, comments that in reality serve little purpose than background noise. Especially when compared to the tremendous hurt or upset that could be caused by a single crass or insensitive comment, however motivated, relating to the victim or the choices made/factors contributing to any such incident. In this day and age a single controversial or critical comment is more likely to get fed back to someone that knew them than a dozen pages of anodyne regret.

To those saying instant and ruthless moderation, I'd ask about the practicalities of employing a team 24/7/365 to do this. How much of a subscription will you be happy paying to road cc to fund such an extravagant level of always on, always vigilant moderation?

the best you could hope for from firmer moderation is approval prior to publication, but that will lose spontaneity or see a whole bunch of posts appear retrospectively after the shock of the story has passed & I feel that would further stifle what limited conversation was to be had from it.

Its a given that we will feel the loss and regret for a fallen fellow rider but do we need to fill that void with triteness.

Sympathy messages only - if you're able to moderate them to enforce that policy. If not, turn the comments off and open a permanent thread of condolence.

Comments off or sympathy comments only if there is bandwidth to moderate. All too often the comments descend into posturing about safety which should be separate from news reporting.

Turn them off. They serve no purpose apart from winding people up.
In fact I think comments on most news items are not needed. Its news not discussion. Its happened not something that we are being asked about.
And finally comments mean and do nothing in the real world.
Be a much nicer place.

my usual thought on threads is that if you don't like the topic or content you don't have to read them but this doesn't really apply that well to the relatives or friends of those killed - having just read the thread that prompted this one my vote would be turn off comments - if someone wants to start a book of condolence thread then Ok and keep it at that - if people want to enter into speculative debate or inconsiderately and unwisely use someone's death to promote their opinions then it can be in a separate thread. If it appears to offend or could be considered insensitive then just delete it. (Full stop)

we should be able to have a grown up comments section, so leave it on.

Why is there no 'Dislike' button next to comments - only the 'Like' option? As most of us are very sensible human beings it would certainly show up the openly offensive posters out there, and hopefully make them think twice next time.

Definitely better to turn them off. A separate forum discussion is a much better idea.

Turn comments off, when it involves fatalities.

Yes please.

I also agree that comments should be turned off- unfortunately there is a tendency for them to bring out the inner-crash investigator among a minority, who seemingly just want to put their detective skills to the test using Google Street View to try and work out who is to blame for an incident. It can get tasteless and sidetracked quite quickly, and no matter how efficient any moderator is, some inappropriate comments will be published before they get removed (unless there is a move to pre-mod comments before publishing which no one wants to see happen). Plus I would much rather the energies and attention of those behind the site are more focused on new articles as opposed to monitoring comment threads.

Some people do write silly things in the comments. I recall that on at least one article you have added the caveat to remember that the friends and family of the deceased may be reading. I think that it is a good way of keeping the comments sensible and respectful.

Disable comments for these articles.

Off.

The facility to comment merely invites the troll and engenders inappropriate debate.

There is already a forum, so those that have something to say can discuss (or be readily ignored) there.

Keep the resources for writing and researching material rather than moderating where it shouldn't be required in the first place.

For what it's worth I think it's a good idea to turn comments off for fatality reports

A general policy of not accepting posts that would no be spoken in a face to face environment might be a good start. Some of the keyboard warrior type postings shouldn't be tolerated as they drag the tone of interaction down and ultimately lead to stifling of discussion and constructive debate. I have seen online posting boards wither away elsewhere because of this.
Ultimately there is a lot of knowledge and experience here that is mostly shared in a helpful manner and long may that remain.

Reading some of the comments from the latest fatality report, I think it would be in the best interest of the family and friends of the victim/victims that comments be turned off on any future fatality reports.

Some of the comments make me feel ashamed, have people no respect?

Keep the comments box open but have a written rule its for sympathy messages only.

If people want to gob off let them open a new forum topic its easy to do.

A fishing forum i go on is strictly run by the moderators and anyone who's comments are racist, homophobic, abusive or foul mouthed are very quickly removed and the poster warned.

Yes, either turn comments off or have a "report post" button and some strong moderation.

The LFGSS (London Fixed Gear & Single Speed) forum has a "rider down" section where accidents get reported and that is ruthlessly moderated - the only things that are accepted on a thread there are condolences and factual stories relating to it (ie links from news reports).

Any speculative comments, anything without a linked and verified news report, anything that moves onto helmets/hi-vis etc gets deleted almost instantly - repeat transgressions simply result in a ban.

road.cc frequently hits the top of the Google searches for some cycling related news stories, and gets posted on the BBC News site for linked stories and comment. Friends and relatives of the cyclist involved in a fatal collision may well end up seeing the story, and my thoughts spring from that assumption and strong possibility.

Some comments do smack of turning up at a funeral with a bunch of protest banners and a bullhorn. There's a time, and a place. And there's the wrong time, and the wrong place. And I've been on protest rides, so not coming at this from the diehard count-every-gram roadie angle.

Turn comments off - no. But with caveats.

Comments mourning the loss of a brother or sister of the wheel, and expressing our shared sadness - yes.

Ruthless moderation to delete or move off-topic and inflammatory comments best kept for forums - yes.

I think its a good idea to turn comments off. I would have thought that anything said by a stranger on a cycling forum would be pifflingly insignificant to a person who has just lost a friend or loved one in a bike crash, but given that the subjects of helmets and hi vis seem to be so divisive on here then anyone who wishes to rant and rave from their particular soapbox can do so in a corner of the forum without affecting the rest of us.

I'm new to this forum but have long experience of motorcycle forums (fora? forae?) and yes, the wider public dislike or don't understand us, yes politicians dislike us, and yes, sadly, sometimes our fellow two-wheelers die in accidents. There's the usual arguments over PPE vs personal freedom of choice too.

I'm not saying we shouldn't acknowledge this and discuss it, but lets not get trapped into forgetting the hugely,joyously life-affirming side of what we do.