Continuing on the subject of reader comments of newspaper Web sites and anonymity, here’s an interesting story concerning that particular aspect of that issue concerning one of the 50 largest papers in the nation, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Here’s a involved-party communication on the matter from the paper’s social media editor.
The basics: A user posted a vulgar comment. The site moderators delete it. Dumb user doesn’t get the non-verbal message, reposts the same vulgar comment. The site moderators delete it.
OK, so far nothing abnormal. Every site that allows commenting deals with that type of idiocy on a regular basis, including.
Here’s where things deviate from the norm. The St. Louis paper staff notes the IP address (this particular comment is on WordPress, which does mark down IPs) is from a particular school. The paper then calls the school, who decided to check into it. Their IT staff eventually tracks down the staffers, who supposedly resigns “on the spot” when confronted.
In what should be the biggest non-surprise of the century, the comments on the blog, and the spread of the story to other blogs such as Ars Technica is pretty strongly leaning toward “What in the blue hell were you thinking?”
And that’s the direction I lean toward.
Let’s be brutally honest, in this line of work, you do come across some people in the community who will use the anonymity of this Web site to be complete jackasses.
But it’s my job to just maintain and control order on this Web site, not enforce a personal moral code across two counties. It’s not my job to make sure employers know what their employees are doing at work. That’s up to the employer to decide how to best deal with those issues.
Are there temptations to “bust” somebody? Yeah, I’ve had them. I’ve seen user accounts traceable to political candidates try and rip on their opponents in story comments. I’ve seen people be jerks online, then raise their hands acting all holy in the same sanctuary I’m in on Sundays.
But, it’s my personal belief that I should fight for the privacy and protection of all our users, not just the ones I like.
And whether the challenge to that comes from the government, the courts or my own temper shouldn’t matter.
That’s just me.
