Posted on 08/19/2014 7:44:13 AM PDT by Second Amendment First
Anonymous comments, even positive ones, damage trust in the news media.
Despite their ubiquity on news sites around the Internet, a movement against anonymous comments sections has slowly gathered steam over the past few years. The first call to action came in 2010 when the American Journalism Review said, “It is time for news sites to stop allowing anonymous online comments.” Since that bold declaration, a wide variety of media outlets, including ESPN, the Huffington Post, Popular Science, Sporting News and USA Today have either banned anonymous posts on their sites or eliminated comments sections altogether.
In August 2013, the New York state legislature even debated an ambitious bill that would have required all Web site administrators to pull down anonymous comments from “social networks, blogs forums, message boards or any other discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages.”
This “no anonymity” movement is motivated by two assumptions. First, when Internet users are allowed to post their thoughts anonymously, online discussions inevitably deteriorate into uncivil flame wars. The idea that anonymity can breed negativity is, of course, not new. Indeed, Godwin’s Law, which states that as anonymous “discussions grow longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1” was first articulated in 1990.
More recent assessments of anonymous comments sections have not been more complimentary. In 2010, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Leonard Pitts argued that anonymous comments sections “have become havens for a level of crudity, bigotry, meanness, factual inaccuracy and plain nastiness that shocks the tattered remnants of our propriety.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
OK, start with DU, see how that goes...
That would be a terrible shame. It's true that many of the comments at these news sites are either: irrelevant, stupid, inaccurate, incredibly mean spirited, or offensive; but that is true of all day to day conversation that one encounters.
The value of the comments section doesn't come from the dumb posts. It comes from the hidden gem posts that are mixed into the dumb posts.
Reading the comments section is like panning for gold: You have to separate the worthless sands of mental excrement from the nuggets of wisdom.
Which is why my internet presence is entirely unconnected with my real-world identity.
Media relies heavily on Anonymous quotes and Anonymous sources and opinions that are not sourced.
Comments can expose biased narrative peddled by media. Media wants monopoly over their monologues.
Too bad for media elites. Age of participatory people’s media is here to stay. There is no way to turn back the clock
I had forgotten that Mr. Paine originally published Common Sense anonymously.
They don’t seem to realize it’s the only part of their product that’s actually entertaining.
Challenging is right.
On many sites you can’t even do a thumbs down even if you ARE registered. Thumbs up only.
Anonymous comments are the only ones that can be trusted as being truthful since the commenter has nothing to fear or gain.
Even positive ones???
This guy is an absolute idiot to think that only positive comments are worthwhile.
I imagine they would like to see anonymous voting (secret ballot) eliminated as well.
“In August 2013, the New York state legislature even debated an ambitious bill that would have required all Web site administrators to pull down anonymous comments from “social networks, blogs forums, message boards or any other discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages.””
That’s frightening.
This is a stupid article. But that tidbit was new to me and shows there is zero understanding of or commitment to the 1st Amendment in New York.
I'm fairly certain that it makes the Left very uncomfortable that about 9 out of ten people commenting on man-made global warming in comments do not believe in it, but 99.9999999% of media are still trying to make us think it's real.
It isn’t just Gorebull warming either, most disagree with them illegals, taxes, schools, etc etc.
The unions have already tried it.
Leonard Pitts argued that anonymous comments sections “have become havens for a level of crudity, bigotry, meanness, factual inaccuracy and plain nastiness that rivals our
own efforts at propaganda.”
Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!
To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don't add you to the list...
That nails it right there.
I love it when FReepers do that in the first few responses. Common.
without anonymity, posters on FR would be harassed at home and work.
bet on it
Russia just banned anonymous WiFi and is being justly criticized for this. But isn’t the banning of anonymous comments on news sites quite similar?
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