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Huffington Post ends commenter anonymity

theguardian.com

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Re: Huffington Post ends commenter anonymity

#21

Post by runn1ng »

TelmoMenezes wrote: post #16
jstalin wrote: post #11

I think, for the most part, general news sites shouldn't have comment sections.

I feel the opposite. Nowadays, I can't stand reading general news without a comments section. I think it's one of the areas where "crowd intelligence" actually works amazingly well: in uncovering fallacies, subtle agendas, propaganda, misrepresentation of facts, etc. I feel I might be polluting my mind when I read a piece of general news that is not being subject to commenting.

If you feel that comment section shows that crowd intelligence works, you have different definition of works than I do.

Re: Huffington Post ends commenter anonymity

#22

Post by prawn »

fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #10
rtpg wrote: post #8

I really hope that we can figure out this whole "people being absolutely terrible on the internet" thing. A lot of people say that it's just because this is how people really are, but I'm not convinced. I know for a fact that I'm a lot ruder on the internet than I'd ever want to be in real life, regardless of consequences. I've found that "real name" policies help (not necessarily forcing a real name, but at least tr…

It's not just the internet. What's going to happen on HuffPo when the nasty comments don't go away? Use the State to bludgeon the offensive speakers? Where will that end?

Don't TechCrunch encourage real names and still get snark in response to start-up announcements? There's more anonymity on HN and people are generally more civil.

A karma system can help, IMO.

Re: Huffington Post ends commenter anonymity

#23

Post by betterunix »

rtpg wrote: post #15
fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just the internet. What's going to happen on HuffPo when the nasty comments don't go away? Use the State to bludgeon the offensive speakers? Where will that end?

Historically you lose your right to free speech when you start making death threats. If you've read the news recently you'd see a lot of very violent stuff being thrown at people. Internet or not, people are not allowed to say they are going to rape your corpse and harass you over and over. So "using the State to bludgeon the offensive speakers" seems like a reasonable reaction to these people. Some of the stuff (tha…

There are other ways:

* Spam filters -- if we can spot viagra ads, we can spot rape threats. A paid moderator can review posts that are flagged by the filter but which are not actually threatening.

* Charging people for the privilege to post comments on the site. You are free to make commentary on your blog if you do not want to pay, and a small fee (e.g. $5/yr) creates just enough of a speedbump to keep most trolls off the site. This can also help cover the cost of a paid moderator.

* Upvote/downvote systems, though these tend to descend into mob rule / groupthink / downvote-because-I-disagree.

Re: Huffington Post ends commenter anonymity

#24

Post by king_jester »

zeteo wrote: post #6

>I just came from London where there are rape and death threats This is wrong on so many levels. Yes, anonymity gives people a wider range of expression and some use it badly. Did she stop to consider those that use it for good? Say goodbye to comments such as "I work for the government and I see so much waste everyday" or "I'm secretly gay, and here are some reasons why I don't feel safe coming out". We might as wel…

That anonymity also allows for people to make direct threats against other non-anonymous posters and gives leverage to people who doxx others. Its up to each site to weigh the pros and cons and it is totally legitimate to say that downside outweights the upside.

Re: Huffington Post ends commenter anonymity

#25

Post by thex86 »

"On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog"

Wouldn't it be better if we kept it this way? I agree -- the comments section of some websites is really bad, but anonymity is important. Look at Reddit -- the trolls don't even get a chance because the crowd sourcing works so well that relevant material is pushed to the top, while the hate comments are way at the bottom.

Like Schneier said [1], "Beware the Four Horsemen of the Information Apocalypse: terrorists, drug dealers, kidnappers, and child pornographers. Seems like you can scare any public into allowing the government to do anything with those four." Coming soon to the list, internet trolls?

[1] - http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/12/computer_crime...

Re: Huffington Post ends commenter anonymity

#26

Post by rowanseymour »

runn1ng wrote: post #21
TelmoMenezes wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel the opposite. Nowadays, I can't stand reading general news without a comments section. I think it's one of the areas where "crowd intelligence" actually works amazingly well: in uncovering fallacies, subtle agendas, propaganda, misrepresentation of facts, etc. I feel I might be polluting my mind when I read a piece of general news that is not being subject to commenting.

If you feel that comment section shows that crowd intelligence works , you have different definition of works than I do.

Aren't HN comments 'crowd intelligence' ?

Re: Huffington Post ends commenter anonymity

#27

Post by twodim »

king_jester wrote: post #24
zeteo wrote: post #6

>I just came from London where there are rape and death threats This is wrong on so many levels. Yes, anonymity gives people a wider range of expression and some use it badly. Did she stop to consider those that use it for good? Say goodbye to comments such as "I work for the government and I see so much waste everyday" or "I'm secretly gay, and here are some reasons why I don't feel safe coming out". We might as wel…

That anonymity also allows for people to make direct threats against other non-anonymous posters and gives leverage to people who doxx others. Its up to each site to weigh the pros and cons and it is totally legitimate to say that downside outweights the upside.

Anonymous threats doesn't harm anyone.

Re: Huffington Post ends commenter anonymity

#28

Post by Karunamon »

twodim wrote: post #27
king_jester wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That anonymity also allows for people to make direct threats against other non-anonymous posters and gives leverage to people who doxx others. Its up to each site to weigh the pros and cons and it is totally legitimate to say that downside outweights the upside.

Anonymous threats doesn't harm anyone.

In the general case, this is true, but in the specific case, not so much.

While a threat doesn't actually do any harm to a person, it does ruin discourse.

Reason being that some people are more sensitive than others, and will not post things that they feel are controversial or personal since they feel they'll be challenged or threatened for it. Even if those threats are completely bunk and amount to nothing but trolling, the chilling effect on discourse is still there.

Re: Huffington Post ends commenter anonymity

#29

Post by simias »

betterunix wrote: post #17
TelmoMenezes wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel the opposite. Nowadays, I can't stand reading general news without a comments section. I think it's one of the areas where "crowd intelligence" actually works amazingly well: in uncovering fallacies, subtle agendas, propaganda, misrepresentation of facts, etc. I feel I might be polluting my mind when I read a piece of general news that is not being subject to commenting.

It all depends on how things are run. On some sites the comments are written by people who are borderline illiterate. On others the comments are insightful. I am somewhat hesitant to say it, but a good policy might be to charge people a small fee (like $5/yr) to post comments. Much of the trolling and illiterate nonsense would be would be filtered by such a system, at least from what I have seen in places like Metafi…

I'm not sure having people pay would give good results, in the french newspaper "lemonde.fr" for instance you have to have to be a subscriber to be able to comment. There are less comments than on other big new sites, but I can't say the quality is significantly higher. Better grammar, maybe.

Re: Huffington Post ends commenter anonymity

#30

Post by ronaldx »

king_jester wrote: post #24
zeteo wrote: post #6

>I just came from London where there are rape and death threats This is wrong on so many levels. Yes, anonymity gives people a wider range of expression and some use it badly. Did she stop to consider those that use it for good? Say goodbye to comments such as "I work for the government and I see so much waste everyday" or "I'm secretly gay, and here are some reasons why I don't feel safe coming out". We might as wel…

That anonymity also allows for people to make direct threats against other non-anonymous posters and gives leverage to people who doxx others. Its up to each site to weigh the pros and cons and it is totally legitimate to say that downside outweights the upside.

> gives leverage to people who doxx others

because of the possibility that personally identifying information might be revealed, anonymity should be forbidden? eh?

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