3 ms·

Let's take Hacker News as a case-study. The open registration system without email verification or any sort of verification allows users to comment and act with

Let's take Hacker News as a case-study. The open registration system without email verification or any sort of verification allows users to comment and act without retribution or fear of being called out. While I support strong security and encryption, generally being anonymous on the internet promotes negative behavior. Anonymity on the internet causes people to act inappropriately, troll, comment offensively, conduct fraud and illegal activities. Interesting, because I think your example is even more effective as a counter-example to your point. As you noted, Hacker News is pretty anonymous, and without verification. Yet, compare the comments here, with Facebook comments on pretty much any news site. Or maybe any other site with Facebook comments. There is no comparison -- Hacker News, with all its anonymity, is much more civil, collegiate, and productive. The lack of intelligent, earnest discourse online is much more complex than anonymity or the lack of it.

ss248 9y ago
>Hacker News, with all its anonymity, is much more civil, collegiate, and productive. Thanks to self-moderation. Any stupid, low-quality comment turns [dead] pretty fast. And content attracts above average intelligence audience in general. That also helps.
- palebluedot 9y ago
  I agree. But that shows the key isn't a lack of anonymity, but a larger collection of other factors.
  - pdkl95 9y ago
    The general (but not perfect) success of moderating HN comment moderation is a perfect example of vigilance being the price of freedom. A free society only works when Good People participate in social and political processes - even smaller situations like helping maintain a popular discussion forum.
s73ver 9y ago
I would say both cases has far less to do with the anonyminity or lack there of. HN is a heavily moderated board, with things like trolling, offensive comments, non civil discourse, etc, being stamped out fairly quickly by the moderators (who, by and large do a decent job, even if sometimes they get a little heavy handed). Whereas on most local news sites, that’s just not the case. Presumably they thought having a “real name” to the comments would temper people a bit, but by and large, we’ve seen that’s just not the case.

ss248 9y ago

>Hacker News, with all its anonymity, is much more civil, collegiate, and productive. Thanks to self-moderation. Any stupid, low-quality comment turns [dead] pretty fast. And content attracts above average intelligence audience in general. That also helps.

palebluedot 9y ago
I agree. But that shows the key isn't a lack of anonymity, but a larger collection of other factors.
- pdkl95 9y ago
  The general (but not perfect) success of moderating HN comment moderation is a perfect example of vigilance being the price of freedom. A free society only works when Good People participate in social and political processes - even smaller situations like helping maintain a popular discussion forum.

s73ver 9y ago

I would say both cases has far less to do with the anonyminity or lack there of. HN is a heavily moderated board, with things like trolling, offensive comments, non civil discourse, etc, being stamped out fairly quickly by the moderators (who, by and large do a decent job, even if sometimes they get a little heavy handed). Whereas on most local news sites, that’s just not the case. Presumably they thought having a “real name” to the comments would temper people a bit, but by and large, we’ve seen that’s just not the case.