The crutch of anonymity on this forum

[Pawlowski6132]

A sampling of other voices on this subject:

Online disinhibition effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_...ibition_effect
Anonymity and the Dark Side of the Internet: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com...internet/?_r=0
The Dark Side of Web Anonymity: http://www.businessweek.com/stories/...-web-anonymity
Anonymity of internet to blame for rise of online trolls:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...ne-trolls.html
How the internet created an age of rage:http://www.theguardian.com/technolog...ling-tim-adams
Does the Anonymity of the Internet Allow People to be Meaner?:http://www.wisegeek.com/does-the-ano...-be-meaner.htm
Cowards who abuse free speech hiding behind anonymity of internet:http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoi...et-181733.html
The Offensive Internet:http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.p...=9780674050891
etc, etc...

Seems like one voice.

[Sal Santamaura]

Seems like one voice.

How so? Except for a couple with no attribution, they all have different authors.

[Pawlowski6132]

How so? Except for a couple with no attribution, they all have different authors.

They are all saying the same thing: People are "hiding" behind the anonymity of the internet.

Which, I think is the wrong way to look at it.

[Greg Miller]

Different usages of the word voice. I think it's valid to say there were multiple voices all expressing the same conclusion.

I think it is pretty obvious that some people posting anonymously feel free to write harsh things, knowing that no-one searching the Internet using their real name will find those comments. Those people posting using their real names know that anyone searching the Internet using their real name can discover their posts here. So they tend not to post comments that mi th t reflect poorly on their character.

But more importantly to me, many statements of opinion, and sometimes fact are reinforced or defaulted by being able to lookup up a person's background and experience (or lack thereof). I tend to disregard comments made anonymously because there is no way to see if that person is qualified to render the opinion.

[Jac@stafford.net]

How so? Except for a couple with no attribution, they all have different authors.

Not one voice, but the 'sample' seems biased to find bad things about anonymity on the 'net. When I toss out a Google search I get entirely different results. Could it be that Google Search is so smart from following my search interests that it focuses less on 'news' and more on scholarly or nonconformist or contrary, non-mainstream sources?

Never mind the data: we cannot tell from the sample what the case is. It cannot be simply pro/con; interconnections, new questions must be raised.
.

[Eric Rose]

I use a fake name. My real name is Al Gore and I invented large format photography.

[StoneNYC]

I use a fake name. My real name is Al Gore and I invented large format photography.

Don't embellish, you only invented Ansel Adams career...

[rdenney]

Okay, folks, I think we covered this topic.

Rick "let's move on to the next one" Denney