You Get What You Ask For

One of Boston.com's top stories today is how a recent study has shown that the prices of homes across the nation are dropping and that Boston has already reached a low, but probably won't get any worse. The story uses the study, suggests reasons for the decline and then cites responses from real estate agents, experts and homeowners who have their homes on the market.

Then the editors opened the forum to readers and the readers have pulled no punches. Responses have ranged from "Who funded this study, the National Association of Realtors?" to "I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – the Globe’s coverage of the local real estate market is a mockery. That Moody’s report came out over 3 weeks ago. Time for some new blood over there," to "This study and story are pure fiction. It is worse than it looks...not better."

As of now, there are nine pages of comments to this story, sparking quite the discussion among people over real estate prices. Many of them have made good, insightful comments about the story and the real estate market itself.

Thus, I wonder if the Boston.com people had anticipated this. On the one hand, they've gotten people to speak extensively about a story on their website , creating demand for it, but on the other hand, they are getting mostly negative feedback and they're even questioning whether it's propoganda or not.

Quite a double-edged sword I'd say.