Has anonymous commenting destroyed meaningful online dialogue? Yes!

[Zeno Swijtink]

Death by moron / Has anonymous commenting destroyed meaningful online dialogue? Oh, hell yes
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

Friday, February 13, 2009

(...)

But that's only a small part of it. Something else is afoot, something more nefarious and curious and, well, downright sad. Fact is, despite the steadily increasing traffic to my column over the years, I now get far less email overall than I used to, either positive or negative.

You already know the reason: Anonymous commenting. Those semi-public forums like the one you see right down there, at the bottom of this very column, those "community" discussion areas borne of the blogosphere and spread to every media site imaginable ....

(...)

Mark's column also has an RSS feed and an archive page . He's also on Facebook .

For cont. go to:

Death by moron / Has anonymous commenting destroyed meaningful online dialogue? Oh, hell yes
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[Barry]

And that's why we require Real Names here at WaccoBB.net!

He goes on to say:

"There is, of course, another solution, and it's far simpler and more elegant and it would fix the entire problem in an instant.



It is this: Reveal yourself. Anyone who wishes to post a public comment must also post his/her real name, an actual email address, maybe even a nice little headshot. You want to participate and add to the conversation, criticize and parry and thrust? Great. Let's see who you are, honest and true. Fire it up. Debate. Engage. Let's create a real community.
No more hiding. No more anonymous cowardice. No more hit-and-run verbal spitwads and avoiding responsibility for what you say. Hey, writers and journalists have been doing it for years, posting our names and email addresses and even photos for the entire world to see. If Web 2.0 means we're now all in this public sphere together, shouldn't I know exactly who you are, too? Shouldn't everyone?



Will it happen? Not a chance. Truth is, anonymous forums still drive a ton of desperately needed traffic to every media joint that offers them, including this one. Until the novelty of anon posting dies out -- which I'm fairly convinced it will, relatively soon -- commerce wins. In a land where click-throughs are king, quantity still trumps quality, every time. Don't you just hate that? I look forward to your emails."

["Mad" Miles]

Ummm, Barry,

Except that most of the obvious trolls / shit disturbers on waccobb clearly are NOT using their "real" names. At least not in their public profiles.

And no, I'm not willing to name any of those with fake names. But they're easy to spot. And I find it telling that those with the most venemous things to say are often, but not always, using psuedonyms. Most of them are on my ignore list, and I do not engage with them, especially once I spot their modus operandi, to outrage and provoke, without contributing much else to the dialog.

I subscribe to Mark Morford's column. I consistently enjoy and appreciate his work. This was a particularly good one.

"Mad" Miles

[Zeno Swijtink]

Ummm, Barry,

Except that most of the obvious trolls / shit disturbers on waccobb clearly are NOT using their "real" names. At least not in their public profiles.

And no, I'm not willing to name any of those with fake names. But they're easy to spot. And I find it telling that those with the most venemous things to say are often, but not always, using psuedonyms. Most of them are on my ignore list, and I do not engage with them, especially once I spot their modus operandi, to outrage and provoke, without contributing much else to the dialog.

I subscribe to Mark Morford's column. I consistently enjoy and appreciate his work. This was a particularly good one.

"Mad" Miles

These anonymous posters are like people who are maxing out consecutive credit cards of social capital, moving from one card ("ThePhiant") to the next ("MsTerry").

[MsTerry]

These anonymous posters are like people who are maxing out consecutive credit cards of social capital, moving from one card ("ThePhiant") to the next ("MsTerry").

Honey, I ain't spend yet!
If I had nothing meaningful to say, how come people tell me otherwise?

[MsTerry]

These anonymous posters are like people who are maxing out consecutive credit cards of social capital,

WaccoBB has more than 8400 members.
Only about 10% (btw 50-100) will post or respond on a regular basis.
The majority (my estimate is 80%) never posts.
Does that mean that Wacco is mainly watched by anonymous people without a voice???
I think that is a Yes and a NO.
When I write something, I think I represent a certain amount of people, a percentage that otherwise wouldn't get heard. Just like you or anybody else who posts here.
I usually don't represent the same people, but I seldom speak just for myself.

I'm making sentences with words that were invented by anonymous people. I wrap them in a language, developed by anonymous people.
I am sure you can read and write Latin and Greek, even though they are dead languages you can't tell me who came up with those languages?
Will you stop using their alphabets since you don't know who made the first pen strokes with them?


I am not interested in running for office and I don't have an ego that needs to be inflated by name recognition.
There is nothing wrong with anonymous when it is just an opinion.
It is just an opinion, Zeno. Nothing more, nothing less.
The internet is by design anonymous, and every opinion is meaningful, whether it is anonymous or semi-anonymous or non-anonymous.
The internet gives people a chance to explore and/or abhor.
It is the ultimate cesspool of communication.