I’m proud to say the Torch website has seen a significant increase in traffic this year.
More people have been visiting our website, and consequently, more people have elected to leave comments on various stories.
Now, 99 percent of the time, we have no idea what articles or columns will generate reader feedback. For example, I anticipated the world imploding after we published the sex toys story back in February, but we only received one letter to the editor (and it was positive!). On the other hand, the Torch has run simple, noncontroversial news stories over which people have gone crazy.
Lifestyles writer Georgia Thelen’s Modern Love column falls under that outlying one percent. When I asked Georgia to write a weekly column about sex and relationships, I knew it was going to cause some buzz.
So, no one was surprised when the Modern Love column was getting multiple comments on the website. However, I was surprised (and disappointed) when several readers took to the comments section, seemingly having missed the point of such a column being published in the Torch.
Thankfully, one commenter was able to see the bigger picture and wrote that while some people may have disapproved of such an article being published in the Torch, “it’s nice to see some sort of conversation erupt from it.”
Yes! Thank you! Our mission at the Torch isn’t to intentionally ruffle your feathers (although it is fun from time to time). Our mission is to ignite campus discussion about issues pertaining to our fellow college students. From what we’ve heard, many of you are in relationships and having sex (or at least trying).
We definitely want your feedback, so keep leaving comments on the website. But when you do, keep in mind the mission of a newspaper: to serve as a public community forum. It’s our job to create the conversation, and it’s your job to constructively continue it.