Mysterious voices
Submitted by jerryg on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 14:36
Could we have a serious discussion of the pros and cons involved in requiring that posters to the Granville Press use their given names? (signed) Jerry Griffin
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Given names would be nice, but....
many people are afraid of the potential consequences. The consequences can be real. During a very heated thread last year I believe Buknut tried to intimidate me by posting my address and mentioning the pond on my property. The pond is not visible from the road. It is only visible from the air and three neighboring properties. Interestingly, one of these properties is where a current township trustee lives.
Right now I’m wearing a t-shirt that says… "I do not intend to tiptoe through life only to arrive
Where have you been?
I was starting to wonder if you moved away. I was hoping you would run for school board again this time around.
jerry im in favor of dat
jerry
im in favor of dat idea
danr
So how do we implement it?
So how do we implement it? Editor(s), would you favor a policy of full-identity disclosure? Alternatively, full disclosure or anonymous — my theory being that those among us who love to pontificate for the crowds might find it less rewarding if they had to be anonymous if they didn’t want to say who they are …
Jerry Griffin
It may make sense or it may not
There are good reasons to have full-identity disclosure and there are good reasons to not have full-identity disclosure. Sometimes unpopular positions can safely only be voiced anonymously. This is particularly the case in a smaller community where voicing a legitimate, yet unpopular with the relatively powerful, perspective can result in lost business or personal attacks.
I would be concerned about an environment where only those immune to economic or social pressure would be able to express their honest opinion for those are the very people who most need the venue.
These pressures can be subtle and the mis-impressions created significant. At times the impact is even on those with relatively significant influence. For example, I lived in a community where there was a group of people who, despite their relatively influential position in the community, publicly were silent about their strong opposition to a certain kind of business. The reason was they were all in a social circle with a very nice couple who was in that kind of business. Everyone was polite and not one of them wanted to offend the couple, yet they were all very strongly opposed to that kind of business being in the community.
Another, and local, example of the chilling impact of economic and social pressures can be seen in the absence of any publicly attributable statements against the original Cleveland Hall renovation plans by anyone currently working for Denison University. This was in stark contrast with past decades where university employees were quite vocal on all sides of various Denison-related zoning issues. Everyone working for the university knew that while past, educationally more liberal administrations had tolerated, if not encouraged, discussion regarding Denison-related zoning matters, the current administration had zero tolerance for public dissent.
anonymous
Great points by Tom and Bob K here. It’s better to find an acceptable way of dealing with over-the-top nasty content or behavior, than to require names on all comments. You want ideas from every direction to either use or discard. In gaining accountability for behavior and another way to judge a comment, you would lose a fuller discourse. It’s better to just judge the naked idea or comment. (signed) singlepie
2cents
Not interested in identity disclosure. Just want to hear everything. Don’t want any form of censorship. Put the comments where you will. Hidden comments is a good form of moderation. It’s important to hear them all. Sure, when stuff goes way personal and rude it would help to get the context from identity as this is a relatively small, personal site. People use handles for various reasons and I respect that. I will not do that, anywhere, sometimes to my detriment. But how can we give cred to personal attacks and opinions here if we don’t know who you are, if you own a certain kind of business in town, are on one board or another, have publicly known political affiliations etc., or are a publically identifiable friend or dedicated foe of various issues. Context is needed to handle stuff like that if you want your opinion to count; I don’t know how to solve this. This site is very productive in producing valuable discourse on local issues IMHO. So I guess, one way or another, forget requiring i/d or not and just let everyone SAY!!
anonymity
this idea of full disclosure is a great idea
anonymity is a reason why people seem to fear government
stand up and face government and tell them what you feel
the internet has been a fabulous tool to communicate
but also gives others a place to attack
from behind
respect all
fear none
danr