On the ideal of real names on story comments
Joel Kramer
Last week, the Nieman Journalism Lab featured a piece by Joel Kramer, former editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune and founder of MinnPost.com. Buried deep into the piece, Kramer writes this of reader comments on his site: “Those who want to leave a comment must register, and their full real names are attached to their comments.”
There is no doubt that signed comments — rather than anonymous — would elevate the level of discourse on our web sites. A segment on WNYC’s “On the Media” last week even taught us the name for “how cruel people can get, given a little anonymity on the Internet. It’s called ‘online disinhibition effect.’”
Kramer’s site isn’t the only one that says it requires real names for reader comments. Former Gatehouse Media digital publishing director Howard Owens requires them on his blog. One of my readers noted in an earlier post that the Downtown St. Louis Residents Association uses software called Disqus (and Facebook Connect) to require real names. The Nashua Telegraph web site also uses Disqus.
In spite of that, I haven’t been able to figure this out: How, really, do you require real names? Even Facebook can’t prove I’m not who I say I am, if I’m required to register there. When Howard Owens and I exchanged comments about this on his blog, he acknowledged that it would be tough for a large-volume site to guard against fake names.
I asked MinnPost.com how they do it. Read more
Rebutting the arguments against story commenting
Inspired by Steve Outing’s recent post entitled, “If user comments go crazy, be thankful; seek more,” I wanted to generate ideas about rebutting the arguments against them.
Yes, there are some newspapers out there that haven’t implemented story comments yet. And there are journalists who are concerned about having story comments. I asked some of the members of the WiredJournalists social networking site to offer some of their favorite excuses — and their replies — to mix in with some of my own. Read more
Kurt's Tweets- Realizing how woefully out of touch I have been with this part of the county. (@ Saint Louis Bread Company) http://4sq.com/5z5Bfh
- Just had my first Gmail phone call -- with my parents -- and the quality was fantastic. Wow. http://tcrn.ch/a8GndI
- Another day, another interview. Fingers crossed. (@ Saint Louis Bread Co) http://4sq.com/avGImL
- Helping my son learn the first 20 elements on the periodic table. Disturbed by how many more elements there are since I studied this stuff.
- Giving blood. (@ St. Martin's Episcopal Church) http://4sq.com/aiWuEk