A Word About Alternate IDs

[tommie frazier]

it sort of violates the anonymity (I believe). some people post things and want comments without the baggage o reaction their "normal" ID might generate.

but, I see your point.

[openminded]

We need a solution that designates alts and one off users from the tried and true blue bloods of the AO. I suggest a Registered User Group. Members enter a primary username with their personal information (only viewable by admins). The Registered users could then have discussions with little concern for trolling. If filters could be set to only include posts from Registered users that would be even better.


By the way this is a serious proposition not a trolling or sarcastic remark.

An interesting idea. But it seems to me that some of our more troublesome trolls have posted under a single ID. Some of the more annoying posters (who are trying to contribute, and mostly mean what they say) do so, too.

[openminded]

Originally Posted by Lucy

An interesting idea. But it seems to me that some of our more troublesome trolls have posted under a single ID. Some of the more annoying posters (who are trying to contribute, and mostly mean what they say) do so, too.

Burn me once shame on you, burn me twice shame on me. If a person can't ignore a poster that is difficult they are at fault. The difficulty arises when the same person comes back as a different poster forcing the learning curve to ignore each time. With registered posters we would eliminate the speculation that every new posters is a troll or an alt.

I take it you are more concerned with multiple alts than with people who just change their name from time to time? There are a number of those, some of them rather trollish, others have changed their names for excellent reasons (such as having acquired a somewhat threatening stalker) so the AO protects the privacy of name-changers fairly seriously.

[Abused Student]

Originally Posted by Lucy

I take it you are more concerned with multiple alts than with people who just change their name from time to time? There are a number of those, some of them rather trollish, others have changed their names for excellent reasons (such as having acquired a somewhat threatening stalker) so the AO protects the privacy of name-changers fairly seriously.

I actually think openminded might have something here. I wouldn't be opposed to people being able to switch their primary ID. But, people that create new ideas just to troll, it would be nice if we didn't have to wonder if they were possibly new people and have to worry about hurting their feelings or could go ahead and treat them like trolls.

I'm just concerned that if Jillbo dissappears as a registered ID, and shortly thereafter Jackie appears, it might be too obvious that Jackie was Jillbo. But perhaps we have enough new posters all the time that it wouldn't be an issue.

[Abused Student]

Originally Posted by Lucy

I'm just concerned that if Jillbo dissappears as a registered ID, and shortly thereafter Jackie appears, it might be too obvious that Jackie was Jillbo. But perhaps we have enough new posters all the time that it wouldn't be an issue.

Who is saying Jackie would have to disappear? I don't think we are talking about only allowing people to only have one ID. Perhaps there is just something beside Jackie's name that says "This is a primary ID". If that is not there, people know it is an alt. No big deal. If there is an issue with stalking, then perhaps the rules can be bent so both Jackie and Jillbo will both have the label for a couple weeks before Jackie disappears. But, if someone starts a thread that doesn't have the label, we don't have to waste our time on something that turns out to be a troll.

[openminded]

Originally Posted by Lucy

I take it you are more concerned with multiple alts than with people who just change their name from time to time? There are a number of those, some of them rather trollish, others have changed their names for excellent reasons (such as having acquired a somewhat threatening stalker) so the AO protects the privacy of name-changers fairly seriously.

Dealing with a threatening stalker should be turned over to the legal authorities. How many times has this actually happened, more than 10? If stalking should occur in the future moderators and the administration should make whatever exceptions are necessary to protect the poster.

The Registered user concept is simply a method to reduce the noise in a conversation.

To protect everyone's secret alt's implement an Anonymous User Group. Members of the anonymous user group must be alts of other users. Speculation of anonymous users is strictly prohibited - not even jokes.

Posters would then fall into three groups: Registered users - known members in good standing with the administration very similar to the persons own self, Anonymous users - alts used to post revealing or career threatening information a heavily moderated safe way to speak candidly, The Rabble - everyone else, users and alts and one-offs etc.

That structure cleans up a lot of the crap going on now without limiting everyones behaviour. If your part of the rabble your life doesn't change on the AO.

Jillbo needs to disappear right now, and, in fact, all her old posts are now listed as "anonymous", because she has a stalker and the AO wants to avoid having the stalker use old posts to track down info she's given out over time.

(This has actually happened, I believe.)

It's only happened once or twice that I know of, and I think the stalker was more a risk to the person's repuation at work than a physical threat, but I really don't know for sure.

I sort of like separating the "really anonymous" from everyone else. I wonder if that would work.