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anonymous posters....

Submitted by che420 on August 22, 2005 - 8:25am.

As requested.....

On every right wing site I've come across, I've tried to leave inflammatory comments, only to be told that I must register first before doing so. On this site no one is required to register before commenting, leaving the forums open to any sphincter brain who can bang out words on a computer. Now I'm all for freedom of expression, but as we all know there are still restrictions on the use of free expression. This is not craigslist, we (for the most part) all know each other, or have met in one capacity or another. I don't want this site to be another craigslist full of anonymous trolls spouting their bile and filth all over. What I'm asking for is that we actually require registration before commenting. If someone has a dissenting view I fully welcome them, as you can see I don't exactly see eye to eye with some people on this site. But if they are to participate I would ask that they not be anonymous cowards about it and require them to register. As I stated before, I want to know who I'm dressing down when I'm writing. If we require registration it will make it easier to spot the trolls and to keep them from the site, and it will allow actual discourse between us lefties and the righties who actually want to discuss things versus those who repeat the Liberal/commie/America hating/terrorist lover mantra.

But hey, that's just one a-holes opinion.

Comments?

Che

my concerns:

why anonymous posting is good:
1. we want to grow, so forcing registration could be a hindrance.
2. we want to preserve membership as something that means something. in other words, we want people to register because they actually want to be a part of something, not just because they want to tell a bunch of liberals to kill themselves.

why its bad:
1. it sucks that they can fire and forget. i want them to be forced to stick around.
2. i don't want trolls. i want honest dialogue.
3. i dont care about quantity anymore, i want quality, meaning that even if we suffer a bit in the number of posts, i would rather us have higher quality conversations.

all this adds up to:
1. the web guys (alex & chris) should chime in on this.

Submitted by Benny G on August 22, 2005 - 9:12am.
My two cents

Is this really enough of a problem here on this site to warrant a change in this policy? It doesn't seem like we get very many troll-type comments, despite the fact that one does not have to register to comment. And, even if we require registration for commenting, it's not as if it is that difficult to register, or re-register under another name if you are banned for trolling.

I agree with Grant, this zork guy left a comment that was stated civilly and was simply that, a comment on the post. The rest of us may not agree with it, and a number of people left comments to that effect. Why not leave it at that? Besides, the better donkeys in charge of this site ultimately have the ability to remove offensive comments so even if someone leaves a comment that is basically hate speech, it can be deleted.

Submitted by annemariem on August 22, 2005 - 4:00pm.
I heart a policy discussion....

I don't think this is enough of a problem yet, and so far the rolly-trollies haven't really caused any trouble to the extent that "they" do on other sites-- as in, we haven't seen the kind of hate that destroys communities, yet.

I know a lot of us get frustrated when people drop their little bombs and don't come back for the aftermath. We'd all rather have a conversation than a SoundPolitics/HorsesAss-style poop war ("Lefties are poopy-heads!" "Republicans are super-poopy-heads!" "Poop on you!" etc.), but so far the poop war's not ever happened since our response to "their" poop generally tends to be "Do you think so? Let's talk about why," which is boring and requires a lot of restraint but it works, for now, in terms of protecting the community feel of our community.

So... what would warrant a change in this policy?

Submitted by amy on August 22, 2005 - 4:41pm.

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