Sarah Carey’s post on the latest chapter in the Waghorne/Udaras spat has weaved its way towards the debate over internet anonymity, something that is a big part of blogging in Ireland.
There is no right or wrong as far as anonymity online goes; being anonymous and being public both have their positives and negatives and they can help and hinder in equal measure.
There are many genuine reasons why an individual may choose to be anonymous when blogging. Perhaps the topic they are discussing is a private or personal one and not something they want to publically be associated with. Perhaps they are blogging about their workplace, and while not revealing corporate secrets still cautious about their company’s policy on blogging. Perhaps they are even feeding controversial but worthwhile information to the wider world, acting as a type of source to anyone who wishes to read. Or, in the case of one of our most celebrated blog comedians, it’s done to enhance the whole experience of the site.
Of course then there are more negative reasons for blogging anonymously; it may be done as a tool to facelessly attack other people, spread vicious rumours about members of the public or perhaps even carelessly defame whoever comes to mind with little chance of recourse.
The positives of “anonblogging” are quite apparent; they allow the blogger more freedom to discuss issues they otherwise could or would not and it may allow for the creation of characters and facade’s that aid a routine or act. The negatives are equally obvious; besides anonblogging giving people the opportunity to say things they may not be brave enough or legally entitled to say in public it can also lessen the impact of said blogger’s statements.
For example, should a public blogger break a story or make a claim on their website they are putting their name and reputation on the line and even leaving themselves open to legal action. While that doesn’t automatically make what they say reliable it certainly creates a level of trust that an anonblogger may have a harder time building.
It is probably no coincidence that the Irish blogosphere’s best and brightest are hiding nothing; look at Damien, Piaras, Sarah, Tom Raftery, Cian O’Flaherty, Mick Fealty, Cian Ginty and Fiona to name but a few. the same comment may have a harder time earning.
From a professional point of view anonblogging isn’t extremely advantagious. Sarah herself has benefitted from being crystal clear about who she is. For someone in a position like myself, where a blog can be used as a platform for ideas, work and as a showcase of talents blogging under a pseudonym is not going to be of any great benefit.
The Irish blog community has its fair share of anonbloggers; the good, the bad and the cunty and each one offers a different justification for blogging without a name, for better or for worse.
Anonymous commenting is a slightly different beast however; just like in bulletin boards pseudomyns are used and abused to back up points of view. Some muppets might continually comment under different names to make it look like there are many voices singing off the same hymnsheet while others may post under different names just to make comments they’d rather not be associated with (possibly due to their obscene or trolly nature).
The only remedy for this problem is to force people to register with each site in order to comment or worse still disable the comment feature entirely. It is my opinion that both of these factors are completely counter-productive and where the former may not stop discussion it will certainly injure it.
WordPress gives IP details of commentators to its admin’s so at least the comment spam can be dealt with at the best of times. Other than that the natural order of things is likely to return; a commentator who states their name (or pseudonym) and links to their site is far more likely to be conversed with than one with a made up name, fake e-mail address and no weblink, especially when they later just spouts out crap.
The internet is always going to have relative anonymity (that is anonymity in general terms that can be removed in extreme circumstances by authorities), however it is not something that should be despaired over.
Anonymous blogs and anonymous comments all have their use and place, even if they are abused from time to time. Even in the real world we have to deal with people who just want to cause trouble for fun, and the safety net that is the anonymous internet is only going to encourage them. Just like everything online though the dreggs quickly sink to the bottom and the good bloggers and commentators, secret or public, will quickly make themselves known.