Author: Steven Schwartz
Date: 10:03:02 05/05/98
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On May 05, 1998 at 12:31:58, Bruce Moreland wrote: > >On May 05, 1998 at 09:54:33, Steven Schwartz wrote: > >>I have heard suggestions that people must sign up under >>their actual names, but, in reality, if someone wishes to >>hide his identity, there is nothing that we can do except >>get rid of him if he abuses the rules of the club. > >Right, but I think requiring it is still a good idea. I think anonymity >in a place like this is an awful thing, it is much more likely that >rather than encouraging people to speak more freely, that it would >encourage people to behave less well than they would if they had to live >with what they say. >bruce The two experiences of obscenities that we have had so far (not bad for over 210,000 hits and 7 months worth of posting) were obviously children. If we asked them for a real name to sign on, it probably would have been some name with a sexual connotation. It would be impractical for people signing up for membership to have to wait for a human on our end to validate their status (an impossibility anyway). Somehow the spontaneity of receiving a password just minutes after applying, to me, far outweighs the sporadic need to erase a message and to discard a member. Philosophically, I agree that in a totally free forum, anonymity leads to potential abuse, but in a moderated group each person lives with what he says because he is ultimately accountable since his privilege can be taken away. There are no doubts in my mind that many people who "misbehave" elsewhere are CCC members in perfectly good standing because of moderation. -Steve
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