Below is a short clip from a very interesting panel discussion on the state of civility online. The panel includes Jimmy Wales founder of Wikipedia, Andrew Keen author of “The Cult of the Amateur”, and Micah Sifry co-founder of “Personal Democracy Forum.”
I have always believed that at the heart of the lack of civility problem online lies anonymity. I firmly believe that the trolls would disappear if they were forced to take ownership for their words and opinions. Online discussion would instantly become much more thoughtful and relevant. Disagreements would suddenly be handled with civility.
As someone who works “online” I am fascinated and saddened by the rudeness, anger, and hate that people feel free to display when they are able to hide behind the anonymous moniker when commenting or entering an online discussion. These same people would never display this kind of rude and disruptive behavior in their everyday offline lives. And most importantly they would be incredibly embarrassed if their own “printed” comments were suddenly attached to them by name. Yet with the anonymity veil protecting them they feel free to be abusive.
That said, I honestly believe that anonymity serves an important purpose online. It allows people to express opinions that they would otherwise be afraid to express. It allows people to explore things that they would otherwise be fearful of exploring.
Imagine, for example, a health oriented website where someone wasn’t able to ask for advice anonymously. Or someone in an abusive situation not being able to anonymously explore how to gain the strength needed to remove themselves from that situation. Or a person who feels alone in their situation..whatever it may be…not being able to find a supportive community online where they feel safe to share.
Fear of exposure could suck so much of the life and usefulness out of the online world. I can’t imagine the ability to be anonymous online disappearing and frankly wouldn’t want it to. It’s too important.
So yes..a true double edged sword. And I for one certainly don’t have the answers.
Personally I strive for openness and ownership online. It’s not always easy. But it forces me to be thoughtful and civil.
Take a look at the clip. And, if you feel compelled to share your thoughts on the subject please do. I would love to read them. Oh and feel free to do so anonymously. 🙂
[via fanboy.com ]
I think checking for people’s identity could solve a lot of problems. Establishing a mechanism that assures an email sender’s identity could for example solve the problem with spam and other unsolicited emails. There is no real need for anonymity in emails. You can always use other communication channels.
In discussion forums it might help if people had to identify themselves as well. You could check the person’s identity when they sign up but allow them to post anonymously and once they’re in. This way they can still discuss topic they wouldn’t discuss otherwise.
If they start to get abusive you can block them from the group. And since they had to identify themselves while signing up they wouldn’t be able to just sign up again with a fake name etc.
What the web needs is an id that links the online identity to the real world identity. There already are web-id technologies out there that allow you do use the same id to login to several sites. All they’d need to do is to link this with a real-world id. And all it would be used for is where you’d normally use a password.. either when sending email, or when you sign up for a web-service, forum, or ecommerce-site.
On the other hand I sure there will always be idiots with a name and a face, just as there are idiots in real life who don’t care about being rude, aggressive, abusive and what not. But with a proper web-id mechanism the number of trolls would decrease, and the sysop would at least be able to block such people for good, just like in real life you can throw the hooligan out and not let him in anymore.
Similarly, if caller-id worked properly, you would not only see a real number identifying the caller, but also be able to block certain numbers — before the phone rings. One big problem with telemarketers is somewhat comparable to the web-issues. Often they don’t identify themselves and make it impossible to block. And you can’t block anybody before the phone rings.
A shift in control in all channels of tele- or electronic communication is needed. Too often it’s not you (the operator/admin) controlling your system/email/forum/phone anymore, but the others (the users, trolls, salespeople, etc)
I think the trend towards everything on the net being public is bad. I won’t join Facebook or LinkedIn because they require me to disclose my real name. I’m glad Twitter refuses to join this dangerous group.
Many comments have a low signal/noise ratio, so I ignore all comments except those on blogs where I know the readers are intelligent and civil. I prefer to read blog posts because the authors take more time to compose their writing.