One of the frightening points brought up by the foul experience of a well-known blogger in the news who has received life threatening, abusive blog comments, is that it is hard to prove the person listed as the commenter is really that person.
We find this in Cre8asiteforums as well. Validation and Captcha are not enough protection from spammers and those who wish to post some of the most disgusting sentences I’ve ever seen. We have a system that prevents most slime from ever being viewed by our members, but there’s always a chance that something will not be caught before it appears on the board. We’re not perfect.
Popular blogs, people and forums are easy targets for people who can’t get through their day without being a total jerk. And, they know they can get away with it because who’s to say they are who they say are?
Reading my mind, John (aka “Softplus”), a long-time contributor at Cre8asiteforums, and a programmer, writes this today, in If I Knew Who You Are, Would You Write Differently? Authentication in blogs and forums:
Sometimes it would be nice (for the administrator) to be able to find out exactly who someone is when they leave a comment or post in a forum. Is it “the real” Mr.X or is it an imposter? Is it someone 1000 miles away or just down the road?
If blog (and say forum) posters had to authenticate themselves first, would the web remain as open as it is now? Would it be better? Would you comment on an unknown blog if you had to prove who you are first?
I always hate it when a select few have to ruin everything for the rest of the class. We’re all being manipulated every day by those who find great joy in abusing others. They live in their fantasy world where everything must be a perfect way and whenever they come across something or someone that doesn’t fit in with how they think things should be, they react with violence, threats, mockery, and ill will.
We don’t have to tolerate this.
How do you protect yourself from threats, stalking, attacks on your reputation?
When did freedom of speech make it okay to purposely hurt people?
Would people think twice about writing and submitting offensive remarks if they had to pay money to comment? If they could be prosecuted?
Can’t they track you by your ip address? Isn’t there a database that has all that information even as far as geographic location?
Comment by chris — November 20, 2008 @ 3:19 am
Remember that even if you could trace an IP address to a house, this will not help if people are using proxy servers, internet cafes or wi-fi to leave comments.
Ever since I first used Usenet / Google Groups I realised that there were poeple online intent on impersonating others, to belittle them, bully them, make people dislike them. All very sad.
One simple solution, which may be a little OTT, is to ban every IP address that leaves nasty comments. Bullies will be able to find another route, but at least the message is clear if they come back – we are on to you. On my forum I automitacally delete the account and ban the IP of anyone leaving spam. No warnings, ne messages, just delete and ban.
Comment by Jon — November 25, 2008 @ 10:40 am