

Anonymous comments improve online debates - ssn
http://ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4916

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motters
There may be some situations in which the only way to get honest opinions is
to enable people to post anonymously, but in the majority of cases where I've
seen people posting anonymous comments, or comments under pseudonyms, the
quality tends to slide. HN is a conspicuous exception, although that's
probably due to its fairly restricted scope of interest.

~~~
rjprins
I find that Reddit is great because of anonimity. People can talk about
problems they can't talk about to anyone. People share experiences they would
never dare to share. You get to realize some things are extremely common yet
never discussed, because of shame or stigma.

Anonimity is the key to getting truth. Even the extremely superficial posts
like "U SUCK DICK! LOLOL!" or extremely incendiary posts, or illegal stuff
like child porn, they show what people are like or what strange and dark
thoughts sometimes pass through their minds.

Anonimity is the counter to hypocrisy.

~~~
Groxx
Hypocrisy, maybe, but not misdirection. Anonymity makes it easier to build
straw men to defeat, or make it sound like your opponent is an idiot, because
nobody knows if you're you or you're them.

~~~
rjprins
It's not like misdirection is not possible without anonymity. In fact,
anonymous misdirection is less effective because the source is more
questionable. Misdirection from an authorative source is the really dangerous
stuff (WMD's in Iraq?).

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vjk2005
The right tool for the right job. Anonymity works in some areas, not so great
in other areas. While many sites are shifting to real-world user IDs, I
believe that is an extreme step and something like 'expiring comments' could
be a better alternative to deal with the problems that come with anonymous
comments » <http://j.mp/cKstr2>

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Groxx
> _There are ways to curb abuses in the forums, whether using high-tech
> solutions or good old-fashioned editing._

Similar sentiment:

All code is efficient given a sufficiently smart compiler.

~~~
eru
No. Your compiler can't compile out side-effects. (Or at least, it should
not.)

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hugh3
Well, I guess that would explain the high quality of discussion on 4chan,
then.

------
eru
Sensible article. But very US centric.

~~~
frossie
Yeah, I find the whole framing the thing around the US constitution unhelpful.
This is really a human psychology issue rather than a cultural history issue.

The thing that makes me curious is whether "semi" anonymity is the best of
both worlds (where the person whose platform it is knows your identity but it
is not published). In the example of women not writing letters to the editor
because of their names being published, would they still object if the editor
verified their identity but then published the letter pseudonymously?

~~~
eru
This is a sane solution, only if you can trust the editor never to reveal your
name. Ever. Not even to law enforcement.

