Anonymous comments are the stuff sane people wouldn’t write


Image of Steve Outing from Twitter

Image of Steve Outing

Steve Outing offers a hybrid approach to the real names vs anonymity debate in reader comments on news sites.

Here is his suggestion:

  1. Require registration for anyone who wishes to comment, including entering their real name.
  2. Use real names as user IDs — no self-chosen nicknames allowed — so that real people are standing behind their words; that will cut out most of the abusive and garbage comments. (Yes, of course, some people will easily get around that with a fake “real name.” But if the majority comply, you’ll have less incivility entering the comment stream, and people who don’t comment now because of the ugly tone of the discussion threads may return.)
  3. Allow a registered user to create a comment that is listed as “anonymous,” but such comments must go through a moderator for approval; no instant posts.

The discussion over how best to manage comments on news articles continues. Here are my collected links.

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