Re^2: Dealing with An(?:no|on)ytroll

Simply don't feed the trolls. Unfortunately, I have a tendency to do this.

Yeah, me too :-), my post was as much to remind myself as everyone else.

Publishing their IP's would be punishing them for not being able to sign in

Does associating an IP with a post constitute a punishment? I can see where it would be disadvantageous (e.g. if someone is posting from their workplace without permission), but is it too much to ask that someone log in with a user name in order to enjoy anonymity?

Are there situations where a user can not log in for posting? I thought allowing AM posts was just a convenience thing (so users could post without having to go through the two-minute procedure of registering or the x-second procedure of logging in), but it seems I'm missing something here. What scenarios prevent users from logging in?

Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it. -- Brian W. Kernighan

Comment on Re^2: Dealing with An(?:no\|on)ytroll

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Re^3: Dealing with An(?:no\|on)ytroll by Anonymous Monk on Nov 27, 2005 at 13:10 UTC
I thought allowing AM posts was just a convenience thing Sometimes anonymity is necessary to be able to say things that need to be said, but no one dares to say under their own name.	[reply]
Re^4: Dealing with An(?:no\|on)ytroll by tirwhan (Abbot) on Nov 27, 2005 at 13:52 UTC
And I would oppose measures that made anonymous posting to PM impossible. But you can still keep your real-life anonymity while logged in as a user to PM, no-one knows that user somerandoname is the same RL person as someotherrandomname (and it can be made impossible to trace somerandomname to a real person as well). Or you can post as AM with the slight drawback that your IP address is known and your posting can be traced back to your RL person by a determined entity(this is true today as well). As I said, I don't think that the inconvenience of creating a separate user is too great, given the benefits of such a measure. Also, while I agree with your statement in principle I'm not sure it is perfectly valid with regard to PM. It's not like somebody is going to come and kneecap you for saying something unpopular. The worst that can happen is that you lose some XP which you can regain with a few thoughtful posts. And, for that matter, even if your view is unpopular I don't think you'll be downvoted overmuch if the view is presented in a rational and non-offensive manner. Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it. -- Brian W. Kernighan	[reply]
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Re^3: Dealing with An(?:no\|on)ytroll by spiritway (Vicar) on Nov 29, 2005 at 04:48 UTC
Does associating an IP with a post constitute a punishment? It does, in my opinion. It is an intrusion into privacy that could potentially lead to problems, but which would appear to serve no useful purpose. The problems, in other words, seem to outweigh the possible benefits. One issue is simply that for many people, their IP number changes from day to day. I don't know if there are situations where a user cannot sign in. I do know that quite a few reasonable, respectful, and well-thought comments come from AM, for whatever reason. Maybe they're at work and keystrokes are logged, and they want to avoid giving away their password - I don't know. But some people do post good things anonymously. Still, I am not adamant about all this. I think the community will form a consensus, and that's how we'll go. I might not agree with it, but I'll abide by it...	[reply]