See the image to the left? It’s a composite of two elements of a screencap that I took from a recent comment in the combox.
I selected these two elements to illustrate a problem that’s been cropping up of late.
I don’t insist on people using the same name or handle in the combox all the time. They can uncheck the "Remember personal info?" box and comment anonymously if they want.
I don’t mind this as long as it doesn’t cause problems, but lately there’s been a lot of it, which makes it hard for other commenters to respond if we’ve got multiple anonymous posters in a single combox thread.
The comment I took the screencap of is particularly noteworthy in this regard. Here we have one anonymous commenter commenting on another anonymous commenter, and that’s . . . well, that’s just wrong. It’s also going to make it really hard for other commenters to respond to either of them.
You’ll note that if you leave the personal info fields blank that the results reads "Posted by: | ". In typography, that vertical bar ( | ) is called a pipe character, so we could take to calling such anonymous commenters "Pipe," but that really wouldn’t fix the problem since we might have multiple Anons and Pipes running around the same combox.
Therefore, to really solve the problem, I’m going to make a new, unofficial rule, which is this: If you don’t want a particular comment to appear under your usual name or handle, that’s fine, but at least put something in the "Name:" field that will let people refer to you easily.
If the problem doesn’t settle down then I may have to make this an official rule and start deleting comments that don’t follow it in order to prevent confusion, so fair warning.
I want to be flexible about this and let people post without their usual name or handle, but as the number of comments has been growing of late, the problem of multiple Anons has been growing worse.
So: Thanks for your cooperation, and I hope this helps make the combox experience more enjoyable for everyone.
Also, I want to reiterate Rule 1, which is that folks need to be polite in expressing disagreement. We’ve had a number of distinctly non-polite exchanges of late, and I’ve gotten complaints about it, so be nice or you may find your comment ain’t there no more.
Oh, and one other combox note: You may have observed that of late the totals shown for a particular blog post [y’know, the ones that say (0) or (13) or (549) or whatever] have not been updating properly. This is a technical issue that TypePad has been having, and I’m talking to them about it. The upshot of it for practical purposes is that if you see a suspiciously low number of comments for a particular post–such as (0) when the post has been up for a while–there may well be comments there that aren’t reflected in the total.
Once every couple of months, my name disappears. I don’t know if my computer is automatically erasing it for some reason, but I don’t look all the time to make sure it’s still there.
Thanks Jimmy for notifying us!
By the way, I know this should be rather obvious and common sense, but for those of us who lack the latter, would you kindly provide us with examples of exchanges that were considered impolite in case there are those of us who were not even aware of the impolite nature of these exchanges in order to have them refrain from initiating such exchanges in the future?
God Bless!
Sorry!
😉
That last one was mine!
I thought I’d do that before anyone else thought of it!
😀
not a problem
It’s my fault entirely 😉
Well, of course, you expected comments like these now didn’t you? 😉
See.. I don’t like posting as an unknown. I want people to know that it is me who is saying things.
Now mind you I have several differnt SN’s to chose from.
On an unrelated note, I had my first showing with Lego Church Project 07 this past weekend and it was a very big hit!
-JM Kraemer
-The Lego Guy
Anon isn’t going to like this one bit.
Well, of course, you expected comments like these now didn’t you? 😉
Oh, I don’t mind if folks have fun with the anonymous thing in *this* combox thread.
In fact, all of the above anonymous comments were authored by me.
Well . . . either all of them or none of them.
I forget which.
Hey nonny nonny
and a hot-cha-cha!
I agree. There has been some really soft people who say controversial (usually because it is wrong and contrary to Church teachings) things and are too scared to say it outright with their blog tag.
When I see a lot of trashy comments by anonymous or people with handles, I tend not to go back to comments sections.
My time is too valuable to look at trash, even if there might be the occasional important comment.
I started out on Catholic Answers using my full name. Then when I started frequenting the blogs I debated long and hard if I would have a “handle” and finally compromised.
I like to know with whom I am exchanging information.
This is a good way to run a blog.
Definitely, people should put something in the ‘Name’ field to keep things coherent. The time or two that I didn’t, it was just forgetfulness.
But I do like to keep things “anonymous” (which is in scare quotes because everyone here is anonymous unless they give real, identifying information). I just don’t like the ad-hominem stuff that invariably happens, and: 1. I tend to take it more personally when I have become a known ‘regular’ who has exposed bits and pieces of my real personality over time; and 2. it’s just a lot harder for people to make personal attacks when they haven’t been provided with personal information. (Not that it stops them: “I’ll bet that you …”)
Anyway, my first few posts at this blog were with the intention of sticking with a consistent handle, but even the first little bit of information became immediate fodder for bullying instead of discussion.
People occasionally suggest that an “anonymous” poster lacks credibility or is unworthy of reading or replying to. They’re entitled to their opinion, but I think posts should be taken on their merits. A lot of “anonymouses” are a waste of time, but a few regulars are too.
Anyway, the point is, this is a good way to run a blog.
— IDLPA (I Don’t Like Personal Attacks)
I know some blogs/blog software doesn’t allow a comment to be posted without *something* in the “name field.”
IDLPA, have you found yourself a new blog name?
As one who has said that I won’t respond to anonymous posts, it’s mostly for the reason Jimmy said of difficulty keeping the Anons straight.
As for lacking credibility and unworthy to respond to, if an anonymous poster wants to be taken seriously, it’s wise to not add an unnecessary additional layer that the readers have to sort through (and which anon is this post from? I think it’s Anon A, but I’m not sure).
Consistently commenting anonymously does come across as hiding or “not having the courage of their convictions.” That’s just the reality of the world we live in.
Civilty is important. But this is an imperfect world and personal attacks to happen. The thing to do is to just call it. Sometimes it’s the heat of the moment. Sometimes it’s a misunderstanding. But even if an intended personal attack, the only way to address it is to say so.
That’s my two cents.
I have a personal dislike for those who lack the guts or the creativity to put something in the name box (if you forget, then that is a different matter) but I absolutely must use my handle as opposed to my real name.
Some of us could never comment at all if we could not use fake names.
Besides, it is kind of nice to have a super alter-ego!
^_^
These pipes… ARE CLEAN! 🙂
What about more than one person with the same first name? For instance, I think there’s more than one “John” commenting here regularly.
I use my middle name for this very reason. You wouldn’t believe how many people there are named “Megan,” and I’m not comfortable using my last name on the internet.
OK, I think I have distinguished myself from The Other Person Named Lily Who Is Probably Sick of Being Mistaken. 😉
I think that you should try and set it up so that TypePad generates a random name. Preferably something very Catholic and which includes “Anon,” just so it is clear that this isn’t a regular user.
Like “AnonTabernacle” or “AnonMagesterium” or “AnonVatican.”
What if your name is really ?
What then?
Can’t please everybody, always say.
Jimmy
I know you reprimanded me the other day for a post and probably quite right-but I was being attached personally and that seemed to go unnoticed by you-and all I was doing was posting factual data posted by well known news organizations and was attacked again
I just wanted to speak my mind a bit-but you are the boss as they say
The strange thing is how many people on today’s Internet seem to get off on anonymity. In the old days of the Internet, or even back on the BBSes, handles were more for the coolness factor than anything else. (Well, and disguising the fact one was female from overexcitable teenagers.) Even trolls wanted to build a reputation of sorts.
Handles were consistent identities, ways to be known. A lot of times, you knew someone’s real name, but still thought of them by their handles! 🙂
There is still a great deal to be said for anonymous freedom to speak one’s mind on the Internet. There are some people in this world who need that freedom to survive. So it’s sad that so many more fortunate people use it for jackassery.