On Fri, 16 Dec 2005, Steven Krivit wrote: > Bill B's got a good point. This is one of the aspects which makes Vortex > such a valuable group. > Most people are willing to identify themselves and stand behind their words.
In observing (or fighting with) flamer types over the years, I noticed that one of the major characteristics that reliably defines "flamer" is... anonymity! Serious people give their real names (and often provide a message sig with personal website, city, etc.) Immature or abusive people use handles. I've seen a number of forums which harness this effect to improve their online community: requiring the use of real names, or at the very least requiring that users have a real email address (not free mail such as yahoo, etc.) In the online world, if your real name is like your face, then a handle is like wearing a mask. In realworld society if you're out shopping or walking down the street (or waiting in a bank,) how do you respond to people who walk in wearing masks? What would you think of a person who spent all their time wearing a mask? How about an entire town where the residents traditionally wear masks all the time? Online handles are really very weird. We got used to them, and they were a novelty at first. But whenever a community arises where mask-wearing is perfectly acceptable, then personal responsibility for our actions is disrupted, and that community seems to automatically attract all the bad parts of Marti Gras. With Wikipedia, if the point is to prevent "famous experts" with recognizable names from being taken more seriously than others, then they need to do the anonymity thing differently. Let people "wear masks," but connect them permanently to the SAME masks, perhaps by requiring real names/addresses/emails during registration, but allowing other users to only see the online username/handle. That way the playing field is leveled, yet also you *are* your mask, so you're not really anonymous. (((((((((((((((((( ( ( ( ( (O) ) ) ) ) ))))))))))))))))))) William J. Beaty SCIENCE HOBBYIST website billb at amasci com http://amasci.com EE/programmer/sci-exhibits amateur science, hobby projects, sci fair Seattle, WA 206-789-0775 unusual phenomena, tesla coils, weird sci
