Jun 21, 2013
New comment rules
There are new comment rules. No anonymous comments. Please use a pseudonym/moniker/etc. The usual rules about good taste, abuse and so on apply. I'm going to start rejecting anonymous comments because a lot of posts (and the last post especially) appear to be overrun with anonymous Mana Party activists. There's nothing wrong with that, but please don't pretend to be a normal, average voter when you're really a party activist.
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Morgan something is faulty with your login script and it’s hard to post comments using our login names only anonymous- blogger doesn’t accept the login. I did offer to help you with a Wordpress upgrade.
ReplyDeleteAh, I see. Did you try and login with your WordPress account or a google account?
ReplyDeleteGood move - I'd prefer no pseudonyms either, if people have something to say then thy should own it, hiding behind a false name suggests you don't want to be identified because (a) you don't believe in what you're saying enough to own it; (b) you are afraid that if you made that comment and people knew who it was they might think differently of you; or (c) you have a vested interest in an issue and don't want to disclose your identity because some/all readers will know that what otherwise appears to be a neutral commentator actually has a personal interest in the outcome. While it is useful to protect the identity around certain types of disclosures, I doubt this blog is one of those fora. And protecting one's identity because of a position held such as being a public servant or iwi authority employee may be legitimate, but there is also a right to freedom of expression and the ability to exercise that right regardless of where we work providing it isn't directly critical of our employer. And if you're in that situation then a blog is probably not the appropriate place to take the criticism is it?
ReplyDelete"No pseudonyms" is impossible to enforce, quite apart from anything else.
DeleteWhat's the point of even having a 'no anonymous commentor' rule?
DeleteThere's no material difference between a pseudonym and 'anonymous'. For better or worse, no efficient means of commentor identification can be implemented. Wouldn't the better approach be, to simply exercise the censoring option where you judge comments made anonymously to be within Manu's ABC framework?
Kia ora EC,
DeleteA lot of the best contributors to NZ's (online) political discourse use pseudonyms. In other blogger's experience asking for pseudonyms discourages anonymous commentators who tend to read the first paragraph and then shoot from the hip in the comments section.
Kia ora Manu,
Like you say, some people don't have the luxury of using their real identity. It might affect their current employment and, in many cases, their future employment prospects (e.g. if a prospective employer googles the person's name and finds strong political opinions). I would prefer real names are used, but this is the internet.