BLOG To Comment or Not to Comment, What is the answer?

The debate about how best to deal with Cyber Attacks/Trolling has been interesting.

There have been useful comments for and against anonymous posting, the use of IDs and moderation. Here are a few of them, there were lots more

"The idea of leaving anonymous comments is, to my mind, a contradiction. I completely understand why people might not want to reveal their true identity but what is wrong with a pen name. If you feel sufficiently strongly about a topic to leave a comment then give it an identity even if it is a false one".

"ID - this places more responsibility on the membership, increasing the democracy of the shared group process"


" I used to post anonymously because it was so convenient.....now I have an ID. As far as I can see, no one on the internet can see my full identity"

"I'm afraid these insane comments might continue even if you stop anonymous comments. It takes just a few minutes to set up a new Google account". We liked this. A hypothesis was tested, the experiment was done and the predicted outcome was found.

"I do not like the idea that some volunteers among the readers of the blog will be moderators. Who checks their background? Because I assume they would get access to my full identity. I would not like that" For most of the ID bloggers you are just a name, sometimes plus a picture. It is you that determines what people can see. I have no public profile on my account I think, Prof G is a little more open....BladeRunner favorite film indeed, next he'll be telling us he's Aries..Oh he has already. (If it were so easy to get information on posters surely we would not be asking VV for his blog site, although maybe a facet was unintentionally revealed last week :-)). People are human and make slip ups, which could let an unintentional cat out of the bag. The system is unforgiving and once it is out, it is somehow out (For example if we launch a post by accident we cannot call it back from every where it gets sent). Volunteers can be people in Team G.

However, it is true a lot can be found on the web, I have looked up a Prof G USA critic, who just orates alot of nonsense (not a blogger poster as far as I know) and found their address and pictures of their bedroom within about 10 minutes.................creepy. Likewise I found information, including street view, about one of the UK trollers within a few minutes.


A set of comments linked to a pen name can reveal a lot about you. I'm not comfortable with that". (I agree we do get familiar with the names of people posting and we know that some have blog sites....so we can see real people behind the posts. This is a plus point also).


"Also because as anonymous I do not worry about sounding stupid" You can guarantee someone else will be thinking the same as you.. so don't be afraid.


"My vote is for you to do whatever it takes to keep your posts coming"- Thanks very much



Comments via an ID recieved approval by most (48%)voters, but 30 votes from 76 is 39% but there were less actual voters as you could vote for more than one thing. Given that moderated comments (38% share) and the will for anonymous comments (14%), it would seem that the majority of people still want anonymous comments.


FOR THE MOMENT WE WILL CONTINUE TO USE MODERATION AND ALLOW ANONYMOUS POSTING, BUT WOULD PREFER THAT YOU TAKE RESPONSIBILITY OF YOUR POSTS WITH AN ID.

We will review this periodically, but the time of unrestricted anonymous posting has ended thanks to the actions of a few mindless idiots. We do not want the readers to endure the sea of hate messages and other nonsense. However, this should not be viewed as censorship, as disagreement is part of the process of progress.


We may be slow to post comments and this is the price that we now have to pay. They will arrive eventually. Please be patient as we do not always have good access to the internet.

TO THE TROLLERS.....AT LEAST PUBLICALLY-WE WILL NOT BE SEEING YOUR MUSHROOM FOOD .....BYE BYE! 


I think this is the end of Trolling awareness week.

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