Blog: Dermot Cole
Please submit your comments, but use your real name
Published Monday, September 22, 2008
Several people have complained anonymously about why they can no longer submit anonymous comments on the News-Miner Web site to my column.
The latest is from "suomi."
"You can give us your point of view, but you can't stand to hear ours!! NOT FAIR !!"
To be fair, I accept comments from people who use their real names.
In a small community, it's important that people know who is saying what. It's part of establishing credibility.
To do that under the current system, readers need to write me directly.
I object to a process that encourages people not to be accountable for their comments. It's destructive.
If you have something to say, back it up with your real name.
The civic health of our community depends upon establishing standards for the healthy exchange of views.
I support the standards that have long applied to letters to the editor.
Thank you Dermot, I agree completely,
As a retired computer programmer I have watched the development of instant, unedited internet post discourse with fascination and dread. The wiki world is looser in that any contributer can delete/replace any entry by any other user so vandalism/spew get vetoed by anonymous peers. But - to be as very useful as it is - the wiki model has had to develop a complex system for self, peer and even auto editing.
Another problem of free blogging is the sprawling volume of posts. It take so much time to scan through and do user-end editing, that the occasional useful or interesting post is easily lost in the fray of self-serving nonsense which appears to be the regressive mean content of the medium.
At its present stage, blogging can be likened to a user amped version of the programmer's data editing maxim for analytical computer routines: Garbage in, Garbage out. Nowadays, GIGO has been supplanted by the snide signature, LOL.
I occasionally click the "Suggest removal" button on posts which are vacuous of checkable fact, patently wrong or contradictory, deliberately vile or offensive, or entirely negative/personal.
What is the N-M policy on removal? How much staff time is spent to review the 'Suggest removal' logs, and at what level and how often? What criteria are considered when removing a post?
Below is the opinion of a couple of very sharp and accomplished commentator/critics of this post modern phenomenon.
From Love and Unhappiness, a review of Elvis Costello by David Yaffe
in The Nation, Aug 18, 2008, pg 32
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080818/ya...
Momofuku's opening track, "No Hiding Place," is therefore appropriate in its Luddite theme, a screed against Internet trash talkers--all the sock puppets and snarky bloggers who fight and fester in the virtual gutter. Costello is, like the Dylan of "Idiot Wind," one of rock's great pugilists, crafting scorched-earth invectives with meticulous care and raw rhetorical power. He snarls at a little guy with his anonymous digital perch: "You can say anything you want to/In your fetching cloak of anonymity/Are you feeling out of breath now/In your desperate pursuit of infamy?" That word, "infamy," goes down with a lovely harmony, but Costello is just getting started. "Let's see how brave you are/When I'm about this far," Costello challenges, concluding, "You sit in judgment and bitch/Well, baby that's rich/You're nothing but a snitch."
In a similar vein, I enjoyed Ralph Nader's expose of Puppetry in a duel with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog on Conan a few nights ago. Humor does need wit to carry the weight of meaningful content.
Sincerely,
Coert
WHY HAS THERE NOT BEEN ANY NEWS ABOUT THE TROOPS THAT LEFT FT. WAYNEWRIGHT OVER THE WEEKEND
agreed - -
Funny how you cannot comment at all anymore on your column Dermot!
Must miss the days when you could write irresponsibly and no one could say a word in response...welcome to the real world
No problem with this, but why aren't you on the editorial page?
I haven't heard a single good reason why people should be encouraged to use phony names in the comment sections of the News-Miner.
That's why I have adopted this approach.
It is absurd to suggest that hiding behind a fake name someone promotes free speech and improves our community.
What it does is promote a situation in which people don't have to be responsible for what they say.
The anonymous comments are damaging to Fairbanks, which is why I oppose them.
The irresponsible news articles - such as dredging up the past with the Hartmann case by the DNM are much more damaging I think....
That is, unless you work for the Enquirer...
If you are so upset by it - make it DNM policy! Or are you the only one there that truly is bothered by it?
Funny - just got done reading the washingtonpost.com and they have a comments section that uses handles - doesn't seem to be a problem for them...maybe you are just more of an elitist or just too sensitive!
Then again - the Washington Post's circulation (in print) is only a paltry 699,130 - clearly just a rag....
Dermot Cole,
Good for you! It does make a lot of sence for one to use there name.
Be it a small community or a large one, you shouldn't have to hide behind a fake name.
I may not live in Fairbanks, but have relatives that do.
Everyday I read the News Minor - some of the comments would not be written if a person had to submit there real name. Good luck.
Paricia Shoknesse Wisconsin Rapids
I agree completely, if you will not post it with your real name attached, then it shouldn't be posted.
Post a comment