Huffington Post to end anonymous commenting

[alp227]

Source: Boston Globe

The days of anonymous commenting on The Huffington Post are numbered. Founder Arianna Huffington said in a question-and-answer session with reporters in Boston Wednesday that the online news site plans to require users to comment on stories under their real names beginning next month.

“Freedom of expression is given to people who stand up for what they’re saying and not hiding behind anonymity,” she said.

Huffington was in the Hub to deliver a keynote address at the Inbound marketing conference, where she focused on work-life balance for business leaders.

But while talking to reporters after her speech about the need for businesses to evolve, she spilled the beans early on the commenting announcement, which apparently had been planned for a future date.

Read more: http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/08/21/huffington-trolls-uglier-than-ever-cutting-off-anonymous-comments/y8C96rssvEne2VunVzPZJP/story.html?s_campaign=sm_tw

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DU has noted the trashy HuffPo comments sections here and here. And you thought Yahoo and MSN comments sections were hell!

[AmyStrange]

1. I love you Arianna, but just how will that work?

-

and also thanx Alp for sharing, but how WILL that work?

Will they force you to use your real name, reveal where you live, or your telephone number?

Or are they going to allow people to use nicknames, like we do here at the DU?

Nicknames aren't really that less anonymous than being called anonymous when you post, in my opinion anyway.

Does any of that even make any sense?

d

-
added a "?" at the end of the last sentence

[JDPriestly]

6. The DU system is good. The administrators can know who we are.

If I had to post under my own name, I could not post. I'm not famous or anything. But I would not post.

[napoleon_in_rags]

10. I think that's a good way to do it.

Admins should know who posters are for legal reasons if stuff gets serious, but don't publish names.

Its just about brand, not just for DU but for any site. Suppose a competent construction contractor, who does business under his name, loves fantasy football: Should clients who search for him find his million beer fueled fantasy football posts from his time off? Or should they find his business? He has a right to control his brand, and post anonymously (in terms of Google) on those football sites, even if the admins of those sites know his real name behind the scenes.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. The administrators don't know who most of us are

They know an email address that worked when we signed up; the sign-up process asks for a real name (it used to, at least), but there's no way of checking that is true; you can't really demand that people's email addresses and 'real names' make sense together.

It's only when there's some form of matching to another bit of information that can't easily be faked that you get a reasonable claim of a 'real' name. Amazon reviewers can be marked as 'real name', for instance; Amazon get delivery names and addresses, so perhaps that means "we have delivered to this name at a real address before". It may mean that the payment details match up too.

[avaistheone1]

36. If you are or have ever been a DU paid subscriber

the DU administrators know who you are and where you live.

[muriel_volestrangler]

38. No, they got sufficient payment details

but that does not necessarily mean they know where you live; and even if they got the name of the person that paid, that does not necessarily mean that is the user on DU. And they may not retain the payment information (I don't know; but since you don't need to pay to post, there is no need to retain it, so they may not).

[hlthe2b]

18. As ugly as it gets now, it will become a field day for ugly RW racist, homophobic, sexist stalkers..

who either don't care if their true ugly nature is exposed or will make up a name.

The fact is that the possibility of the ugliest in society targeting one for what they posted on a internet site--just s they do staff of planned parenthood clinics or gun control movement advocates, pro-choice activists and the like, would simply not be wroth the risk...

No, I wouldn't post, either.

[RKP5637]

26. Agree! I don't care if DU admins know me, but there are way too many kooks in

the world to openly post ones real name in public forums. I would not post either.

[NCagainstMcCrony]

33. Wrong

What are you talking about? DU has absolutely no clue who I am.
As for huffpo, They can kiss their 30 million hits a month bye bye if they switch to a system like that.
Not to mention the liability they will have.
I personally had someone try to kill me for posts I made on the internet.

[JDPriestly]

41. When you pay, you have to pay through some means that reveals your identity.

[Cryptoad]

11. They are going to use a NSA check on who is whom! nt

[Wernothelpless]

21. Have you followed HuffPost on Facebook? ...

It's a sewer and more like "The Enquirer" then the Huffington Post pre AOL ... it's every sordid trashy lowlife story and the commentary by posters is worse ... They spent most of the past couple weeks trashing a 16 year old girl who was kidnapped while her mother and brother were murdered ...

Arianna's empire sold out ... too bad ...

'Alien Head' Dug Up In Graveyard Smells Like 'Male Perfume'
www.huffingtonpost.com

[tblue37]

48. Basically, HuffPo is all about "sideboob" shots now.

I had never even heard of that term until I saw it on a HuffPo banner!

[ForgoTheConsequence]

2. good start.

Now cut out all the sexism, side boob stories, and ads pretending to be news articles and I might give you another chance.

[Fearless]

3. Essentially they're trying to sanitize the commentary being had

Which I don't begrudge them for, it is at times awful. But people enjoy their anonymity on the internet; this will not bode well for them.

[JDPriestly]

4. I will mention once again that Benjamin Franklin used pseudonyms when he wrote some of his

things, and most important, the Federalist Papers were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay under the name Publius.

I think that people write more freely if they use pseudonyms. I like pseudonyms. I don't want to know who people are who comment on DU. Anonymity puts the focus on what is said and not on aspects of the author's personal life.

We don't comment on DU in order to become famous or to speak for our families or friends. I probably would not post at all if I had to use my own name.

I like my privacy. I realize that those who really must know who I am can probably penetrate my pseudonym and my person, but I like to be somewhat anonymous. I write more freely that way.

Besides, I am embarrassed about my sometimes faulty grammar and typos. If i used my real name, I would be much slower in posting than I am. I would want my posts to be closer to flawless. I had enough of that during my laboring years.

[dothemath]

5. "DU has noted the trashy HuffPo comments sections"

Pot, meet kettle. Until homophobia and racism are eliminated, there isn't much here or at HuffPost or any other site of this genre for me.

I am not saying an occasional nugget does not pop up. Yesterday, there was a reference to a movie named IDIOCRACY, made in 2005. I watched it on my tv masheen and there were a few pearls of wisdom in it, as well.

So, I will continue to scan from time to time. It could happen again. Maybe.

[dipsydoodle]

7. Just looked at the Guardian for comparison

solely because I'd never noticed before. They don't use real names and the BBC doesn't either.

[JI7]

8. huffington kind of focuses on tabloid trashy stories

they will have other things also. but it seems like they use the trash to get more people on their site.

[Divernan]

19. HuffPo is too cheap to adequately staff to monitor "report/alert" and delete or ban posters.

They are known for not paying people who write columns/articles and this is more of the same. It is really amazing at a time when freedom of speech is under such attack by the meta monitoring/spying, that posters would be expected to provide their real names online. I won't do it.

[snooper2]

31. They are not a legit news organization

Just recycle shit other people write-

Like Raw Story, crappy web page design as well....

[Posteritatis]

45. They've got significant moderation resources, at least. (nt)

[ForgoTheConsequence]

9. Relevant I think....

Seemingly Mentally Ill Internet Commenter Presumably Functions In Outside World

http://www.theonion.com/articles/seemingly-mentally-ill-internet-commenter-presumab,33570/

[Historic NY]

12. I use my Twitter account to post...

so they know who I am. Perhaps it would eliminate the brigades of baggers they have posting.

[burnodo]

14. I didn't think you could post comments at HuffPo without registering

or does she mean actual name?

[onehandle]

15. LOL! Ok... My real name is Carlos Danger.

Now let me add to the 'discussion' of nip slips and shock stories.

This plan didn't work for Google+ or Facebook. What 'magical plan' does HuffPo have to wrench 'real' names out of Internet denizens?

[seabeckind]

16. I have noticed

that in some forums people who post under their real name tend to be bullied more. That counter posters will research their background and then use info to try to make their posts less legitimate.

The right wing people tend to be much more insulting, totally ignoring etiquette and carry that to a personal level when they can. They sure don't shy away from ad hominems (probably cause they don't have a clue what it is).

On many of the forums it is the right wing people who encourage the use of real names and I wonder if their intent is to stifle the free expression of ideas.

On a side note, what prevents an opponent from taking personal revenge? We have already seen that some unscrupulous employers examine online comments for anti-company sentiment and in some cases even try to get an employee to divulge their password (as if I ever would...easiest answer is that I don't use those sites).

I think the whole idea is bullshit. Maybe the NSA contractor is having a rough time matching my comment to me and needs to have somebody show him in crayon.

[Javaman]

17. I guess they got tired of "trolls" trashing their trashy stories. nt

[seabeckind]

20. And now I can't figure out

how to delete their f'in account.

What is this BS? It's as bad as those stupid apps that my phone comes preloaded with that I can't delete.

Another good reason to remain anonymous.

I ever mention the time I joined a "club" so that I could drink (in college, underage). Little did I know that it was considered a subversive organization during the 20's and the FBI never got around to updating their list...

[tomtharp]

22. This is great

I have posted under my real name on every comment board for years, like a man.
I don't want a pretend avatar to inflate my ego, I stand behind my words, and choose them carefully. As well I live in a very small town full of hippies, Christians, Tea Partiers, new agers, etc. We all get along despite our differences because we will see each other in public again and again, ergo civilized discourse. This year I worked elbow to elbow with a gun nut for weeks; it was great to politely discuss the 2nd amendment eye to eye during break. He learned much more than if I anonymously trashed him online.
Someone told me a story of hackers in England tracking down hateful youtube trolls and confronting them in front of their wives and families and publicly challenging their hate - shrivel shrivel. If humans are to survive we need civility; anyone can throw stones and start a fight; be the bigger person. If we knew the troll's real names they could probably not run for mayor or be teachers, cops etc.

Fluffington post used to be good, pre 08 or so. To bad TYT, which used to have some great commentary, has followed Ariana's model of man bites dog stories. I miss the old TYT when Cenk delved deep into real issues, I guess man bites dog makes more $ as Arianna has proven.

Tom Tharp

[alp227]

28. What are you talking about? Cenk STILL goes deep in "real issues"

See this 9.5 minute clip from Aug. 12, "How Congressmen Are Bought":

TYT has had a political hour and entertainment hour on its live show for YEARS (since 2006 or so); the "fun" stories are co hosted by Ana.

[bemildred]

23. Freedom of expression is given to everybody, no exceptions. nt

[Posteritatis]

46. *facepalm* (nt)

[Beacool]

24. I don't believe in spreading my name all over the internet.

I will stop commenting there. I don't comment on any site where I have to use my Facebook name either. Facebook is one tool employers use to check on people. I try to keep my professional and private life separate. There's already too much information out there for everybody to see.

[lolly]

30. Yes--there's less and less to comment on anyway

But this policy would make discussions more of a business environment--since employers and clients would all have access to it--than an enjoyable leisure activity. Why would I want to continue the work day online?

I see it this way--I behave one way at work, at meetings, with clients, in the classroom, and another when I'm at a backyard barbeque at home or meeting friends for drinks at a pub. I don't invite my employer to listen in on those conversations.

Forcing people to use RL names would be like inviting all those people--plus assorted crazies, stalkers, nosy relatives, etc--to every social event you hold or attend.

[Beacool]

43. Exactly.

I know that employers check people's Facebook page. There was some guy that I was told by my manager was not called for a second interview due to what he had on his Facebook page.

I come here to pass the time, I don't want my real name exposed and I don't expect others to post their name either.

It's also a safety issue. As a woman, I'm careful about my name and pics too. There are far too many sick people in this world.

[avaistheone1]

34. I am with you. The less( if ever ) you use your real name on the Internet the better.

You are right employers use the internet to check up on people. What if a employer doesn't like a political comment you made on a website like the Huffington Post? Some employer could use such comments not to hire you, or as grounds for termination.

[Beacool]

44. That's my point.

I don't want my employers, or other people that I barely know, to do a Google search and read my comments. My private life is not their concern.

[Sunlei]

25. guess all the paid media posters will have to make-up fake names.

[PoliticAverse]

27. And they will be verifying 'real names' how ? n/t

[avaistheone1]

35. ...with the NSA?

??

Really I don't know how they can identify if the name is authentic.

[SCVDem]

29. If I write an LTE

Or use my real name it becomes searchable on google etc.

I don't need a future conservative employer or Bears fan using that against me.

I will find a workaround to this stupid policy.

Hire more moderators!

[tblue]

32. Tell her to just ask the NSA.

They see and know everything already, or at least they've got that info stored in case they need it.

[avaistheone1]

37. I wonder if this is a HuffPo scheme

to somehow increase revenue. If Huffpo has your real name are they able to attract more advertising, or are they able to sell ads for a higher fee?

This change seems really odd to me, and it goes against the grain of the free exchange of ideas and opinions the internet represents.
I think the idea sucks. I rarely have posted there and won't do so in the future.

[lunatica]

39. They'll lose 99% of their commenters But their IQ will rise

[Kingofalldems]

40. DU should do the same thing.

[avaistheone1]

42. That will take the traffic to DU down to a trickle.

[Posteritatis]

47. Good God, no.

People here get abrasive enough as it stands if they make another user their hobby for 'correction' of one type or another. I wouldn't put it past a small but significant chunk of the membership to take some vendettas thoroughly off-site if they had a stack of real names to attach to posters.

Simply requiring a login is enough in most places. It doesn't stop everything, but most high-traffic forums or news sites that allow entirely anonymous comments tend to be cesspits at best. If some brain donor needs to actually go through the half-dozen steps of setting up and confirming an account before they post, it makes it hard enough to envenom a lot of discussions that most people won't bother

Political forums never get my real name. Leaving aside the fact that most people wouldn't believe said name in the first place, I've already had my year-and-a-bit of enthusiastic harassment by some putz from another less site that was considerably less polarized politically.

[DiverDave]

49. I dont go there.

just a way to make money on the work of others, f her.