

News Sites Rethink Anonymous Online Comments - quan
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/technology/12comments.html?ref=technology

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thinkbohemian
I don't know how they plan on making comments not anonymous. In this article
the only defense is having users register. Which I'm assuming means that they
would register with a valid email address and click a confirmation link. In
that case services such as ShadyEmail.com and the like can get around this
type of registration.

The only real way to stop anonymous comments and commenting is to make being a
non-anonymous member of the community more rewarding and productive than being
an anonymous member. It's not really a technology or policy issue, its an
issue of personal incentive and community.

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freejoe76
Re: "The only real way to stop," I don't entirely agree. News sites could
approach their comments like they approach their letters to the editor, and
ask for the phone number of new members.

Verifying every phone number would be a lot of work, so you don't do that.
Just verify the folk who post more than, say, 5 comments.

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thinkbohemian
Requiring phone numbers could be effective. Though no matter what technology
you use there will be a way to get around it.

I think a good case study of a community promoting non-anonymous comments is
facebook. They use very little in the way of technology to prevent flamewars
and spam, mostly it is user culture.

