How to not be anonymous at AlbertLeaTribune.com
Published Monday, March 9, 2009
If you post comments at AlbertLeaTribune.com, do you ever notice that some people are not anonymous? Their real name appears. Here is an example:
Do you wish you were no longer anonymous? This blog entry explains how to change your anonymity settings. Because you post, I assume you've already logged on as a user. Up in the corner, by your username, you will see a link for your account.
Click on "Your Account" and another page will appear.
Click on "Edit your anonymity setting." This will lead you to the page where you can enter your first and last name and some other information that helps us verify that you are who you say you are.
Fill out the form and click "Save my changes."
Your name won't automatically appear next to your comments because there is one step on our behalf. It occurs in the site administration. We have to verify your request before your name appears. This is why information such as your daytime phone number is necessary. Your information does not go into a database. It simply stays with your anonymity information inside the site administration.
However, your real name probably won't start appearing right away. We are often busy working on other matters, such as monitoring site comments or working on stories, but when we get time to work on the anonymity requests, you will get a phone call or an e-mail or both. If you want to speed up the process, feel free to call me, Tim Engstrom, at 379-3433 and let me know you've filled out the request and want me to click the "verify" box.
Here is a glimpse at part of the control panel in the site admin for anonymity.
Do you see how we must check the "Verified" box? Once we do that, your name will then appear next to your posts. How cool is that!
Hey, by the way, I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial. Happy web surfing.
Comments
Those Strongly Winged posters are all talk here.....let's see them show there real name and put there name where their mouth (fingers) is.
On the other hand, in NO way should anybody be revealing the identity of a poster who chooses to remain anonymous (baring slander or defamation or criminal act where an identity may need to be turned over to authorities, but only by lawful court order).
In this day and age, Benjamin Franklin might have used the blog name "Mrs. Silence Dogood": http://library.thinkquest.org/22254/dogo...
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay used the name "Publius" when they wrote the Federalist Papers
Also consider the 1995 Supreme Court ruling in McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission:
"Protections for anonymous speech are vital to democratic discourse. Allowing dissenters to shield their identities frees them to express critical, minority views . . . Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. . . . It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation . . . at the hand of an intolerant society"
Nisperos is correct in his arguement. I would add that the constant clamor for name tags is a tool used often to silence people in corporations, government, communities. It is a wedge tool to seperate issues from names, unlike you suppose. The name becomes the target of attention, and the powerful can more easily destroy a name than an idea.
And, too, the insatiable desire for gossip by some has its place .
Yeah, yeah, gotta "go sip" my coffee each morning and whether or not the beans are ground (or counted), decide to have several single origin brews in turn or mix a little from several places in a pot. Part of freedom is options...
Does the Tribune staff do any other serious blogging on other sites?
And, yes, humans without choices would be the end of us all. Oh, Lord, this desert we still waunder. But at least we can yet waunder freely.
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