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I don't want an internet of bullshit, but that's all we'll ever have, as long as anyone can create 50,0000 sock puppet accounts, and claim to be Pope Francis hi
by uniqueid 6y ago
I don't want an internet of bullshit, but that's all we'll ever have, as long as anyone can create 50,0000 sock puppet accounts, and claim to be Pope Francis himself.
The vast majority of the time, I don't need to know your name, but if you're claiming to have knowledge of something, I do need a consistent way to verify your claims via a third party (eg: does a neutral third party vouch that the speaker truly is a certified mechanic? Truly a highschool graduate? Cancer patient? Citizen of Iceland?).
Unless we have some standard for notarization and identification built into the internet, it's turtles all the way down.
- cameldrv 6y agoI also don't care whether I know your real name, although I'll take you more seriously if you provide it. The main thing I want is the ability to block/mute someone and have it stick. Perhaps everyone should be able to have a secondary/tertiary account, but I also want to be able to easily see that it is not their main account, and perhaps mute everyone not using a primary account. Reputation is a large part of how civilization remains civilized. There are advantages to not having your reputation follow you around forever -- sometimes people make mistakes and need a fresh start, but there are also advantages in having consequences for bad behavior. For commercial social platforms though, at least in the short-medium term, allowing anonymity is good because it creates a greater incentive for outrage and conflict, which drives engagement. This is IMO at the root of many current problems in society.