An article in the Boston Glove by Stanley Talabach focusing on the world of people who post anonymous comments online. They're usually found on news sites and with articles/columns often dealing with political and racial issues and political figures.
At Boston.com, the website of The Boston Globe, a team of moderators – or “mods” – monitor the comments. Actually, with just one or two mods on per shift, and an average of more than 6,000 comments posted every day, on every corner of the site, the mods could never hope to monitor all the simultaneous chatter.
[Clip]
Others, like The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, are probably wishing they’d taken that step earlier. In March, the paper outed a local judge for allegedly posting comments on Cleveland.com under the handle lawmiss that included critical commentary on cases and individuals appearing before her in court. The judge denied authorship and is now suing the paper and its affiliated companies for $50 million.
[Clip]
In another suit, a Louisiana public official sued 11 anonymous posters last month for comments on The Times-Picayune website that he said were malicious and untruthful.
[Clip]
If we hope to clean up the online conversation, we need a better understanding of the select group of people doing most of the talking. Studies have shown that participation rates in online social communities tend to follow something called the “90-9-1” rule. About 90 percent of the people are “lurkers,” that is, watching but not actively contributing; 9 percent are infrequent contributors; and 1 percent are, to borrow a term from the fast-food industry, the heavy users.
After years of letting anonymity rule online, many media heavyweights, from The Washington Post to The Huffington Post, have begun to modify their policies. The goal is to take the playground back from anonymous bullies and give greater weight to those willing to offer, in addition to strong views, their real names.
It's hard for us to understand how some news organizations didn't see the abuse increasing and dealing with it immediately. Perhaps no one was paying attention, didn't want to admit it, or decision makers who didn't read online comments and were told by their staffs what they wanted to here. Now, that anonymous comments are the cause of law suits, those who paid no or little attention are being shocked back into reality.
Jill O'Neill also makes an excellent comment in her RSS feed. She correctly points out that the sites where the abuse is taking place are thought of as authoritative sources. Yet another example of why critical information/Internet skills are so crucial and become more crucial each days. Students should begin learning them at the earliest possible time and then continue as an important part of lifelong learning.
Hat Tip: Jill O.
FreePint Shop:
VIP LiveWire:
