Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

It would seem as though Mayor Shaver has provided us with an excellent Topic of the Week subject.

Should the name of those that post to blogs such as PATA be made public? Does the anonymous postings cause more harm than good? What will we gain and what will we lose by making the names of those that post in confidence public knowledge?

What do you think?


By Roadrunner and Coyote

Hold on....

It was my understanding in one of Roadrunner's postings that you cannot tell who is posting. Only the host can get that information through a subpoena. Even your list of participants is based almost exclusively on hot mail or yahoo accounts, also anonymous. If you want to reconsider your topic of the week to discuss the pros and cons of posting anonymously, I would be happy to participate. But if you are even looking to discuss making people?’s names public, then you can count me out. I will lose this site like a bad habit.

Please reconsider the course you want this to go.

Don't Panic

I used to have webmaster privileges to this site back when I was also taking PATA phone calls. There was absolutely no way to tell who was posting messages if the poster didn't want to identify him/herself. I think the reason Sabatino's website wasn't popular is because you couldn't use a hotmail or yahoo account to register.

There always have been plusses and minuses to the way this Discussion Area has been used/abused.

On the plus side, people are freer to express themselves without fearing looking foolish or having to personally defend an unpopular opinion. For these very reasons, I post both anonymously and using my name.

On the minus side, people feel free to hurl insults at others, or spread lies, knowing these acts will go unpunished, legally or socially. Yes, some of the posts here have been libelous, and it's unfortunate that the perpetrators can hide. They do lower the level of discourse.

I'm curious as to the direction Coyote and Roadrunner want to take this site. Specifically, on other blogs, comments are posted on another host like haloscan. This makes comments easier to post and read, but it also makes them easier to trace. I've been on some blogs where the owner posts an IP address asking if it can be identified because the owner of the IP address is making threatening or libelous comments.

It's something to think about. Being able to trace an IP address will hold people to a higher level of accountability and prevent some of the juvenile actions on this website. It may also stifle serious discussion about issues for fear of being exposed as ''anti-school'', ''liberal'', ''conservative'', or in disagreement with an associate politically.

Response

Katelyn,

Speaking for myself, I had hoped to indicate to everyone where my vision for this site lies in previous postings. Personally, I would like things to remain pretty much as they are with the exception of the ability to archive old postings and Our Pages content. That effort is under way. I also hope to try to encourage the site into a more constructive and positive direction. I think if you look at the postings over the last couple of weeks, you see a slight trend towards more positive discussion and less negativity. Of course the attack against Dr. Rigelman is the exception but that is, and has always been cyclic. Bruce handles himself admirably and with integrity.

I did do some research into other hosts for this forum and for various reasons, cost, security, etc. have opted to stay here. There is always the potential to lose longtime participants if links are changed and having to sign up all over again provide technical challenges to some users. Also considered in this is the fact that there are still many users who employ dial-up and adding more to a page, whether it is graphics or the like can slow their response time and cause frustration. One site I attempted to utilize allows spam to infiltrate the site. When you establish your blog you can opt to advertise your blog on new sites. After watching the spam for a few days, I was convinced that wasn?’t a road we wanted to travel down.

I agree there are pros and cons to anonymous postings. However, I believe that the anonymity allows people who might not ordinarily speak out to do so. Whether you support an issue or not, you are always subject to opposing views. Take for instance a pro-school supporter we had on here a couple of years ago. Agree or not with him, his stance and his tactics, he stated his opinions and defended them and took all the outcry and ignominy offered. We occasionally have to put ourselves in other people?’s shoes and even if we don?’t agree with their point of view, we have to acknowledge their right to express it. I can only ask that people try to stay consistent to their positions. Don?’t come in and accuse someone of doing what you yourself have done on numerous occasions.

Speaking again for myself, I have no real interest in who posts what. I never have. I know I don?’t have the right to ask but I can still hope that the more constructive and positive trend (with the few exceptions) seen over the last couple of weeks continues.


By Roadrunner