Posted by Rick Denney on October 09, 2000 at 09:45:43:
In Reply to: A suggestion for this BBS posted by Phil on October 08, 2000 at 10:33:20:
A bulletin board is a conversation. The comments made therefore stand on their merits. I might appreciate the comments of an unnamed stranger at a cocktail party without ever finding out the name. And knowing the name doesn't guarantee good behavior on his part, nor appreciation on mine.
It has been said before that most regular posters who routinely use a pseudonym are known to most other regular posters. Whether I enter my name as Rick Denney, or as A Guy In Virginia (copying shamelessly the practice of another Guy), most folks know it's me. They can tell by the particular brand of stupidity expressed therein.
I ansolutely agree with Joe S. (if I had a name like Sellmansberger, I'd abbreviate it, too) in that no public forum is an appropriate place for negative comments about specific people, whether anonymous or not. There is a highly respected professional that I once crossed paths with, who is revered by all but me. But I avoid discussions about him. Some would interpret that as sycophancy, but in reality it is just that little bit of humility that makes it possible for everyone else to be right and me to be wrong.
We are all conversationalists--otherwise we'd be working like we are supposed to instead of reading and posting in Tubenet. Conversations sometimes get heated. As one (sometimes anonymous) wag once said here, sometimes you have to get sharp to make a point. Only Sean gets to decide what's acceptable and what's not. It may be a public forum, but it's still privately owned.
Most of the really obnoxious posts that require the owner's intervention I would class as drive-by postings, and knowing the name wouldn't expose the identity enough to establish accountability. I suspect that repeated and unrepentant offenders can be prevented from posting in the first place--after all, when you hit that submit button, your IP address and host name is part of the message that Sean receives. So there is no really anonymous posting.
Finally, for those who think this forum is sometimes unfriendly, I would suggesting perusing most any Usenet newsgroup. It will re-orient your definition of "unfriendly."
Rick "some of my best friends are anonymous" Denney