Say It Loud: No More Anonymity

By Mike Phillips

Recent events have convinced me that our reader comments service needs a bit of housekeeping.

The issue is that once in a while, our usually thoughtful, civil and interesting comments go off the rails. When that happens, people can forget about the article they are supposed to be talking about and start arguing with each other on points of law or what the Bible says or abortion or….well, fill in the blanks.

It becomes an intellectual train wreck.

Our content is archived for most of the Observer’s history. We have, at the moment, 20,901 comments on file. If they were better organized, they would make a good manual of human nature.

But even a disorganized browse yields a good insight or two.  One, which has been driven home to me recently, is that people who write under their real and full names are more likely to be civil and thoughful in their comments than people who don’t. A few people write under just their first name or a nickname, but generally their email addresses reveal their given names. And then there are a very few people who simply don’t want you to know who they are.

Whenever there’s a comments trainwreck, I’ve observed, there are one or two of those hidden people in the mix. And they often are stirring the pots of controvery, anger or flat-out misrepresentation of the facts.

That will have to stop. Our discussions should lead to a better-informed and more understanding community. Not the opposite.

So I will start from the bottom up. If we don’t know who you are, we’ll give you a week or two to introduce yourselves. If you refuse to be known, then we will no longer let you comment.

If you are commenting under less than your full name but you have a good reason, and we know who you are and how to contact you if need be, we can work that out.

But anonymity is off the table.