There is currently no policy on anonymous postings, although the poster's email addresses show when they post to a community discussion list. We've had several suggestions over the last few months that anonymous postings should be discouraged.
The list guidelines could be changed to indicate that, except in extraordinary circumstances, anonymous postings are inappropriate for these community discussion lists. There may be circumstances where an anonymous post might be appropriate, but we'd suggest that would need to be arranged with the list administrator in advance of posting to the list.
The option here would be to indicate in the list guidelines that posters are expected to list their name and town at the end of their posts to the town discussion list, unless other arrangements have been made with the list administrator.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
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I agree, sometimes an E-Mail address does not identify a poster.
ReplyDeleteFred Wolfe Strafford
I agree also. The town listserves are intended for discussion, not for such hot debate that the posters need to fear reprisals.
ReplyDeleteDean Whitlock, Thetford Center
Micki Colbeck
ReplyDeleteStafford Listserve
I agree that anonymous postings should be discouraged. I see no reason for folks to not sign.
Tara Bamford
ReplyDeleteThetford Listserve
I agree and think our list has done a good job of self policing that. When someone has forgotten to add their name, there has usually been a follow-up apologizing after someone has reminded them.
I agree to no anonymous postings.
ReplyDeleteNo reason for anonymity.
ReplyDeleteI believe we each should stand up and be counted for what we believe. This requires that each person identify himself or herself, and also the town in which they live.
ReplyDeleteRosemary Yaecker
Bradford
Sometimes I prefer my anonymity.
ReplyDeleteI recently posted anonymously - as I couldn't understand the profile selection. It seemed my other choices were google and URLs and other stuff.
ReplyDeleteSo sometimes folks are inadvertently anonymous. Beata Randall,
Hanover
I accidentally posted anonymously one time. Boy, my neighbors jumped on my case quickly and I immediately posted my name. I'd forgotten that I used an email that wasn't easily identified. So it does happen but it should not be allowed intentionally.
ReplyDeleteI guess the question for me is, if one of my neighbors has something to say that (for whatever reason) they do not feel comfortable attaching their name to, do I still want to hear it?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think it is likely to be MORE interesting and more in need of being heard, and I would like to hear it.
There is a real danger that any public forum turns into a place where the participants try to discourage the expression of unwelcome points of view. Small town New England is notorious for this sort of mind control.
A certain amount of social control is necessary for the smooth functioning of society - but any more than that minimum is stifling.
So far, nobody has given a single example of a negative outcome resulting from allowing anonymous posting - except for Katherine Pond's rather telling anecdote about being chastised for doing it accidentally. A community in which a personally is "jumped on" for an inadvertent slip is a community richly in need of anonymity.
Jeff Doyle, Norwich
Generally speaking, it is the socially dominant who hate anonymity because they can't control anonymous speech through the usual strategy of ganging up on the speaker and punishing him or her.
ReplyDeleteI guess how you feel about that depends on whether you have been ganged up on, and whether you tend to sympathize with the underdogs or the authorities.
Now I am sure that some would claim that nothing like that ever occurs around , but I guarantee that lots of people think it does, though they might not be willing to admit it publicly, because, well, they'd be punished.
This all has the flavor of the argument when the Patriot Act was pushed through that "you don't have anything to be worried about as long as you aren't doing anything wrong."