I’ve seen an uptick in anonymous, pseudonymous and first-name-only comments recently. Some of them are really good, but I won’t post without a real name, first and last — clearly spelled out when you try to post. Here is the full Media Nation comments policy along with some of my reasons for implementing it.
In some cases, it may just be a matter of how you registered with WordPress. (Note: Registration is not necessary.) If you think that’s you, please read this.
My local daily, the Salem News, has added itself to the growing list of news organizations that are requiring real names for online comments in order to root out the hateful speech that too often mars such forums. It’s the right move, and one I adopted about a year ago. Editor David Olson explains:
If you write a guest column for the newspaper, you have to use your real name. If you are quoted in a story, we use your real name — no anonymous sources allowed. And if you write a letter to the editor, not only do you have to sign your name, you have to give us an address and phone number so we can check to make sure you are who you say you are.
Online commenters, until now, have had to do none of this.
Like Media Nation, the News will rely on the honor system for the honest majority and intuition (and informants!) for rooting out those who adopt fake names. That’s definitely the way to go. Last July the Sun Chronicle of Attleboro unveiled a real-names policy that required people to turn over their credit-card information if they wanted to comment. If you poke around, you’ll see that the paper’s website has pretty much become a comment-free zone.
This blog post by Howard Owens, editor and publisher of the Batavian, remains the definitive explanation as to why real names should be required.
"Dan Kennedy ... exercises the blogger's imperative to bloviate beyond his expertise."
— Boston Globe, 11/30/08
Media Nation is published under a Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial- Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Some rights reserved. You must attribute this work to Media Nation (with link). For more information, please contact Dan Kennedy at da {dot} kennedy {at} neu {dot} edu.
Winner of a 2011 CBS Boston "Most Valuable Blogger" Award.
Commenting on Media Nation
Harvey Silverglate’s provocative post on the Aaron Swartz case has brought in a number of new commenters. If you don’t see your comment posted, it’s because you did not use your full name, first and last. Please see this and feel free to resubmit.
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Posted in Technology
Tagged comments, real names