Nola.com Reader Forum Posters Lose Sense of Decorum

CBD — Nola.com website administrators are moving quickly to enact new controls after reader posts in response to a recent article spun wildly out of control into a series of racist tirades and ad hominem attacks.

“We at NOLA.com and the Times-Picayune value everyone’s right to free speech,” said web designer Aaron Duplessis.

“But I must admit that I am personally flabbergasted as to why anyone would use an anonymous public venue to posit racially charged sentiments.”

The vitriol commenced after a posting by RedHotz82 which contained four misspelled words, a double negative and a comma splice.

User Saintsfan123 felt compelled to put the spotlight on RedHotz82’s literary malfeasance and capped off his/her castigation with a racial epithet.RedHotz82 responded to the attack four posts later with equally derogatory comments intensifying the hostilities.

Numerous postings followed with equal numbers of posters supporting the positions of both RedHotz82 and Saintsfan123. Each successive posting increased the amount of slurs and stereotypes promulgated by visitors to the popular New Orleans news site.

“After 637 posts into the forum the argument kind of died down,” said Duplessis.

“In the future, we at Nola.com are going to have to seriously consider publishing another feature story about cooking beignets if doing so continues to invoke such impassioned prejudices.”