The following is a NY Times article: From the start, Internet users have taken for granted that the territory was both a free-for-all and a digital disguise, allowing them to revel in their power to address the world while keeping their identities concealed.
A New Yorker cartoon from 1993, during the Web’s infancy, with one mutt saying to another, “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog,” became an emblem of that freedom. For years, it was the magazine’s most reproduced cartoon.
When news sites, after years of hanging back, embraced the idea of allowing readers to post comments, the near-universal assumption was that anyone could weigh in and remain anonymous. But now, that idea is under attack from several directions, and journalists, more than ever, are questioning whether anonymity should be a given on news sites.
The Washington Post plans to revise its comments policy over the next several months, and one of the ideas under consideration is to give greater prominence to commenters using real names.
The New York Times, The Post and many other papers have moved in stages toward requiring that people register before posting comments, providing some information about themselves that is not shown onscreen.
The Huffington Post soon will announce changes, including ranking commenters based in part on how well other readers know and trust their writing.
“Anonymity is just the way things are done. It’s an accepted part of the Internet, but there’s no question that people hide behind anonymity to make vile or controversial comments,” said Arianna Huffington, a founder of The Huffington Post. “I feel that this is almost like an education process. As the rules of the road are changing and the Internet is growing up, the trend is away from anonymity.”
The Plain Dealer of Cleveland recently discovered that anonymous comments on its site, disparaging a local lawyer, were made using the e-mail address of a judge who was presiding over some of that lawyer’s cases.
That kind of proxy has been documented before; what was more unusual was that The Plain Dealer exposed the connection in an article. The judge, Shirley Strickland Saffold, denied sending the messages — her daughter took responsibility for some of them. And last week, the judge sued The Plain Dealer, claiming it had violated her privacy.
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12 Responses
“The Huffington Post soon will announce changes, including ranking commenters based in part on how well other readers know and trust their writing.”
This just means that all the radical pro violence liberals on that blog will be able to rank each other very high and anyone who refutes them will be ranked very low.
It’s just liberals trying to protect themselves from the truth.
You can’t force everyone to give their real names because many will still give fake names no matter what.
Supposed you require ID’s like entering drivers licences for example.
Not everyone has one and some will still use fake ones.
Well it seems that to a certain extent YWN is leading the pack with their system of having a user id.
You should see the vile anti Torah and hateful comments that are allowed on other “Jewish” neias sites.
I always sign my name to a posting. Furthermore, I have found that the most obnoxious and stupid remarks are made by “anonymous” or some idiotic pseudo name. If I could I would also require a literacy test of all posters or at least the ability to use a spell checker.
Aryeh Zelasko
#3 the beauty of the internet is that even after saying what you did, we still have no way of knowing that Aryeh Zelasko is your real name
i believe in everyone giving real names.
frummy
aryeh, that was obviously a vicious, cheap shot aimed at excellent contributors to YWN like flatbush bubby.
Chevra, it’s sefiras haomer…have some ahavas yisroel. If this is Arye Zelasko from Far Rockaway, then all you who are so negatively commenting.. go and find out about him and his family and you will all be apologizing.
This is an ehrliche family who is there to help others and do only for others.
OK I’ll admit. My name is actually not HaLeiVi.
#3, I guess you hold like R’ Meir, who was Doresh Shemos. But anyhow, I’ve also noticed that the comments are often summed up in the name.
#7, How can anyone believe you with a screen name like that?
HaLeiVi:
Even if you are a Levi what does that have to do with your comments? Your own comment about comments summed up in names makes no sense based on your name?!
So when is Yeshiva World News going to get on the bandwagon and restrict comments on News items.
I can understand that articles such as this one might justify having comments but not every news item should have comments. Why not restrict comments to a special moderated section.
Moose613 is NOT my real name