Back in February, Instagram’s raison d’être was revealed: alerting hotels to issues with their signage. To facilitate that process, brands must be engaged with, specifically via Instagram comments. However, if you follow any popular Instagram accounts, you’re no doubt familiar with the problems caused by Instagram comments. Observe:
The Red Sox Instagram account has great behind-the-scene pictures, and just the worst goddamned comments imaginable. In addition to the usual “Red Sox suck/Yankees suck/<Insert team name> suck”, not to mention the rather out-of-place “baseball sucks”, there are all manner of links to other Instagram accounts, fights between Internet strangers, and even chain mail garbage. It can be maddening just to skim by, and the forced exposure to so much stupidity is a definite turn-off.
I can’t imagine that any major Instagram account is pleased with what their comments look like. Yet it’s remained this way for years. Twitter’s new Periscope service has an intelligent option to only allow comments from people the broadcaster follows. Instagram accounts really ought to offer the same, as well as an entire “Off” switch. Otherwise, someone ought to hack the Instagram app to run a version of shutup.css.
