BlogaBarbara FAQs: What's in a Name?
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet...although using the name "anonymous" when commenting will not be accepted beginning Saturday, you are not without the option of making an anonymous comment. Let's review the options:
- Google/Blogger Username: If you have a Blogger ID because you are a blogger, your display name will appear, along with a link to your profile and your photo (if you have one).
- OpenID: You can enter any OpenID account name like your AIM ID or LiveJournal ID, without having to have a Blogger account.
- Name/URL: You can enter a "Nom de Blog". This allows you to use either your own name if you do not have a Blogger or OpenID or allows you to become "Juan Jose Castillo de Cabrillo y Alameda". No URL or website address is necessary for this option to work.
- Anonymous: No identifying information is displayed. The comment is credited to "Anonymous" without a link. Any comments made with this button will be rejected beginning this Saturday, February 16, 2008.
I'm looking into whether I can just take out the "Anonymous" line to make it easier for all of us and those that might be new to BlogaBarbara.
Finally, I want to clarify what this effort is about. I'm not interested in taking away the ability to comment anonymously more than I am interested in having a more linear sense of flow to our comments and a sense of who is saying what. It will be much easier to follow who is saying what in our comments section if you were to even use a made up nickname on the "Name/URL" option. This will allow for anonymous comments but hopefully add a sense of responsibility to the process. Of course, the BlogaBarbara Guidelines still apply and I will not publish comments that are mean, use foul language, attack another commenter, etc.
In short, I am asking our readers to take another step which will take just a few seconds in order to improve the level of discussion and heighten our sense of community. I appreciate your understanding and welcome any questions you may have about this new guideline.
Labels: Anonymous Comments, BlogaBarbara FAQ
posted by Sara De la Guerra | 2/13/2008 05:28:00 AM
Our Community Guidelines ask that you use the Blogger/Open ID login or the
more private Name/URL option when making comments. Comments using "Anonymous" will not be published. For more info, see choosing an identity.
13 Comments:
Sara: Don Jose de la Guerra y Noriega couldn't get through on the Name/URL option...must be prejudiced against Latin Patriarchs.
Thanks for doing this.
This sounds good to me. In fact, I'd even go a step further and require people to have a blogger account to post. That would eliminate all the sock puppetry.
For those concerned with privacy, note you don't need to use your real name for your account. Also note if a court subpoenas the blogabarbara records, posting as "Anonymous" ain't gonna save you (they'll just get the IP addresses and track you that way).
it's all to complicated now for me.
i'm sure i will still read but now i'd have to remember a name not to mention a password... i already have trouble remembering my real one.
Perhaps our family name is too long Uncle Don....am testing one now.
Looks like it worked!
4:18 pm -- I thought about requiring IDs but one of the things that has been powerful about BlogaBarbara has been the ability to say what you want. At times, it has gone a bit far and I am hoping another level of security -- slight though it is -- will help. Thank you all for your support.
Although I disagree with the new policy, I accept that your goal is not to reduce the number of comments, although that will probably be the result, making it easier on you ... and easier for the rest of us to scan, since one will be able to skip past the comments of posters one knows one disagrees with, in the same way one reads - or does not - George Will, for instance.
However, I wonder how it will be easier to follow (over the course of time) by anyone but you? Is there a search function available? (Sara wrote: "I'm not interested in taking away the ability to comment anonymously more than I am interested in having a more linear sense of flow to our comments and a sense of who is saying what. It will be much easier to follow who is saying what in our comments section if you were to even use a made up nickname...")
One of the beauties of the anonymous postings is that one never knows what one will read or the point of view. Too bad that unexpectedness is going from here.
(However, one can achieve near anonymity by making up a new name, rearranging those 26 letters, every day.)
The search function on the upper left corner works with posts but not comments -- if one of you are mentioned or wrote a community post, it would work well.
The easier to follow part will be over the course of a post and our memory over time. A nom de blog might be associated with a point of view but the person could rearrange the 26 letters everyday. I think there is benefit as well to looking for a particular person's ideas on a post. I'd rather people stick with one or maybe two but that will be up to you.
Just testing a new username.
Testing
I see...
Good for people to know.
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