It has become clear that there is one particular sociopath who uses the anonymous function on this site to attack people. Often he (she) uses facts about the other person's life to attack them.
I have seen many constructive discussions derailed by this single poster who lives to destroy and hurt others.
As a result, I've decided to no longer respond to anonymous posters. I realize that I will miss some good points made by other anonymous posters, but the efficiency of time spent on anonymous posts is just not a very good return. I learn some, but not nearly as much as I would by reading the regular posters more specifically.
I'm sorry that it's come to this for you.
I'm thisclose to requiring registration for commenting.
but there are so many different anonymous posters it does not seem fair to single out one....
and then there are the times people simply forget to sign in...
I think it is clear that I make my attacks up front and in person, even though I might be
Sociopath of the Month in the eyes of some.
Great accomplishment seems imperfect,
Yet it does not outlive its usefulness.
Great fullness seems empty,
Yet cannot be exhausted.
Great straightness seems twisted.
Great intelligence seems stupid.
Great eloquence seems awkward.
Movement overcomes cold.
Stillness overcomes heat.
Stillness and tranquillity set things in order in the universe.
- Lao Zi, DDJ 45
ewjohnson,
You're a seperate problem from the anonymous commenters.
It wasn't clear what you meant because I didnt separate the 2.
BTW - your "Ping" doesn't allow comment, but I suppose you intended it that way.
Is there a way to force anonymous comments to display the commentor's IP address? Might encourage registrations and allow quick identification of problem posters.
Found this, though it does seem a little hack-ish.
"BTW - your "Ping" doesn't allow comment, but I suppose you intended it that way."
Yes.
"Is there a way to force anonymous comments to display the commentor's IP address? Might encourage registrations and allow quick identification of problem posters.
Found this, though it does seem a little hack-ish."
Interesting idea. I may have to consider this when next upgrading.
I would suggest fines for poster who violate the rules. A dollar for conservative’s two dollars for liberals, you could raise money for the site. I would get off scot free of course since I thought of it.
I found the r00lz here...
Commenting (Viewing and writing)
To view comments, click on the title to any blog entry.
To control how you view comments, you can change the settings under the post in “Comment viewing options.” These are your individual viewing preferences, so feel free to experiment. Make your selections by clicking on “Save settings.”
To write a comment, scroll to the bottom of the blog entry page.
For writing comments, you have access to a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. You can find explanations for each of those buttons here. (Not all of the buttons that appear on that page appear in the editor window – but all of the buttons that appear are on that guide page.)
You will have the same formatting options for comments as you have for blog entries (described above) including images.
Type and format your comment, and click on “Preview” to preview or “Submit” to submit.
please direct this n00b to any other r00Lz
A necessary move with minimal and hopefully temporary loss.
I think banning anonymous comments is a good idea. Despite that many people make good comments anonymously, and they cannot reveal who they are just like high profile people who give background information (on condition of anonymity, one State Department Assistant UnderSecretary told us ...) the one or two bad apples have ruined it for all of us.
And besides, unlike when IP.com first started and anonymous comments were encouraged, not just tolerated, IP.com has become a nice small club, a half dozen conservatives and a few acceptable liberals as foils for the conservatives, and there isn't much room for anons who have tips that "the emperor has no clothes",
And anyway, IP.com, just like the N-G or any media outlet for that matter, just isn't as relevant as it thinks it is. I
Frankly, chatting over the internet is kind of juvenile, and it seems to get very juvenile here.
I'm deleting my IP.com bookmark. I really do have better things to do than fight knuckleheads on some discussion board.
"A free and open society is an ongoing conflict, interrupted periodically by compromises."
--Saul Alinsky
This discussion is interesting. I am wondering, and I mean this seriously, why you would decide to abandon replies to "anonymous" posters, but still feel it is OK to respond to postings by people with the name of "redstatewannabe", "glock21", or even "illinipundit". Are those real names of people that you know? I suppose they are in some cases but do you mean you won't respond to any one that you don't personally know? I know I might be trying too hard here to figure things out but I have been puzzled by this issue for some time , as it comes up fairly often on this- and other- blogs and I haven't really seen it addressed. And if your answer is that you will only respond to people that you already know, what fun is that?
For instance, you might think that because I take the time to register and log in as Abner Parafin then I am not anonymous. You post as xian, and I am not at all sure who you are even though you use a registered name to post your comments. In my mind you are really not any different than the anonymous posters that are all over this blog, but that is just because I don't know you I guess.
I think it's about maintaining a consistent identity.
I don't think the issue is about who people really are, I think it is about some sort of consistency of comment. You can easily create an anonymous e-mail account under the name stinkymcpoopers@hotmail.com and then become Stinky McPoopers on this site. If you logged in every time you commented then we would know, "Oh, it is good old Stinky!" even though we wouldn't know who you really are. It is just easier and a bit saner that way. Also, I think it keeps people from flying off the handle completely (no pun intended) since there is at least the smallest amount of accountability attached to a general, anonymous login name.
The consistency of comment is important because two anonymous end up on the same thread and maybe on opposing sides of the issue and its hard to follow who is saying what. Gordy knows my name is Jim and has my email address as a verified poster. He has D. Boons (may not know his name) also I see since he has been verified it gives us some accountability for what we post. I really wish that we could just be civil with each other and stick to issues so that IP doesn't have to police the site. I disagree with DBoon sometimes he has a right to his opinion but I don’t have to attack him for having it. Stinkypooper that’s the best you could do? :-)
D Boon, I finally can agree with you on something. Well writ.
I would llike to see where people live, are they locals or not. When an anon shows up it would be nice to know if he or she is a homee. Just an FYI thing.
Do you live in Urbana, ah I see....Might even be interesting to know gender, ah I see......Or is trying to guess more fun? ahhhhh
At times it would be nice to know if six anons are the same person or six individuals.... Not always easy to tell...
Thats my vote, for what its worth.....
It seems a little overboard to me to resolve to not respond to ALL anon posters. Is it really that hard to follow Gordy's advice and "not feed the trolls"? In other words, if there is an anon post which makes a point you wish to discuss, then respond. If there is an anon post which is a personal attack, THEN INGORE IT AND DO NOT RESPOND TO IT. As Gordy has stated many times, if you don't respond to the posts which are obvious attempts to attrack attention, they will go away.
ractivist posted that he/she likes to know the demographics of the poster, (i.e. gender, race, religion etc.), I guess in an attempt to know where that person is coming from. To me that is the beauty of the anon post. The reader has to take the argument on its merits only and can't factor in that it is a "white/male/blue collor" or a "hispanic/female/catholic" point of view. The anon post allows discussion of topics of the day without all of the preconceived ideas that we all have about each other. Yes, one can register with an anonymous name, but over time through various posts, information is revealed and then everyone knows that xian is a male who teaches in the local school district. Nothing wrong with that, but now that information accompanies every post he makes.
Another advantage of the anon post is it allows someone to play devil's advocate and post a viewpoint which is opposite to his/her stance on a topic. This is a common practice used by speech teams to improve a speaker's debate skills. Without the anon posting ability it would be impossible for, run4cvrlib, to post an argument which supports increased gun control legislation or for, eggs actly, to post an argument supporting a nationwide smoking ban.
The people here who can't make arguments want to eliminate anonymous posting for one reason: so they can wage personal attacks. This is their standard approach; they can't win on the merits, so they want to sling mud.
The Anon Army has smashed its opposition here. Now the people who can't make arguments are surrendering by eliminating anonymous posts.
"The people here who can't make arguments want to eliminate anonymous posting for one reason: so they can wage personal attacks. This is their standard approach; they can't win on the merits, so they want to sling mud.
The Anon Army has smashed its opposition here. Now the people who can't make arguments are surrendering by eliminating anonymous posts."
This is a comment from my favorite troll, which I would normally delete, but I'll leave up for once as it's actually topical.
My response is twofold:
First, we should distinguish between anonymous and unregistered users. I love the concept of anonymous commenting, and it would still be possible, but I would want anonymous commenters to register a username (even an anonymous one, like "redstatewannabe" or "justkem") and use it so that discussions can flow more clearly and with more accountability. Anonymous commenters posting thoughtful arguments isn't the problem. Unregistered hit-and-run trolls desperately seeking attention with insults and provocations are the problem.
Second, that the vast majority of personal attacts are coming from unregistered commenters, with many coming from you. From my experience, requiring registering for commenting will not cause registered users to personally attack each other, but will eliminate unregistered commenters personally attacking regisistered users. If someone else has the impression that unregistered users are somehow less likely to engage in personal attacks, please let me know.
I agree that it makes sense for everyone to post with a user name of some sort, I cannot tell one anon from another sometimes. My question is, if one registers - and even if we don't - I assume IP can tell who we are or at least where we are posting from. Is this information available to anyone else?
"I agree that it makes sense for everyone to post with a user name of some sort, I cannot tell one anon from another sometimes."
Good. We want you to be confused. That way, the people who have to use personal attacks can't do so.
The registered users are the ones making the attacks. They use means up to and including death threats. The Anon Army always will oppose them, and we have routed them until now, their point of surrender.
The points about consistent identity posting mirror my own feelings. The answer for me that it's not about knowing the person in real life or their exact name or anything, it's that they follow typical rules of social discourse where they are expected to be consistent. The internet always has people with security issues or sociopathic tendencies who will try to explicitly use the inconsistent nature of internet identities to avoid accountability for their words or actions. I have no interest in partaking in that.
I take care of 14-18 years olds all day, and it's fun, but trying. If some stranger wants me to be their venting pad or shrink or victim of anti-social tendencies, contact me directly, and I can schedule a payment plan.
"My question is, if one registers - and even if we don't - I assume IP can tell who we are or at least where we are posting from. Is this information available to anyone else? "
I can - IP addresses are logged, but I don't bother to check them, because I don't really care, and beyond ISPs, I don't really know what any of it means anyway. The logs aren't available to anyone else.
"The registered users are the ones making the attacks. They use means up to and including death threats. "
So said the troll, without any evidence whatsoever, as usual...
My question is, if one registers - and even if we don't - I assume IP can tell who we are or at least where we are posting from. Is this information available to anyone else?
If someone's concerned about this, there are two issues.
First, your IP address is logged even when posting without a registered username. In fact, if you just visit the site, the webserver will (most likely) log your IP address - I'm sure that IlliniPundit could retrieve this information from the host if he really wanted. So registering/posting really doesn't make you less anonymous, it just reduces the legwork involved.
Second, if you're concerned about internet privacy (not just on IlliniPundit.com, but any website), you could always use a proxy server. Proxy.org has a huge list of available, free proxy servers to make this easier. There are only two downsides to using a proxy: 1) the proxy server could log where you've been, and 2) the proxy can slow down your connection speed. #1 isn't too big of an issue, because most proxy servers have so much traffic that it isn't worth their time to see what type of porn 143.123.54.74 likes. #2 also isn't much of an issue nowadays, although the proxy might go down every once in a while.
I have had one troll who tried to use a proxy to avoid a banning, but was so incompetent that detecting it was comically easy.
Checking IP logs with Drupal is a pain (at least with this version), and I don't bother. On the rare instances that I need to unpublish a comment, I do so because the comment is obvious trolling or spam, and don't even bother to check the IP address.
I'm not really that concerned. I don't personally know any of you and I'm sure you've never heard of me. But I have a job where it is best to keep my political views private. I'm not sure I was clear in my question. If my e-mail address is in the system if I register, does anyone other than IP have access to that? I don't want to start getting e-mails from everyone who disagrees with me. I currently don't get any spam and would like to keep it that way!
"If my e-mail address is in the system if I register, does anyone other than IP have access to that?"
Nope. And I only look at it if I need to contact you for some reason.
Purplelady, you can also set up a junk email address (yahoo, hotmail, whatever) that's not connected to your identity.
Thanks for the clarification. If the e-mail is not available to site readers I don't need to set up another address.
"So said IP's victorious nemesis, without any evidence whatsoever, as usual..."
There's plenty of evidence. You choose to ignore it. You're like Baghdad Bob in that regard.
The Anon Army has won. You can't stop the beating without requiring registration. Either way, the Anon Army wins.
"Thanks for the clarification. If the e-mail is not available to site readers I don't need to set up another address. "
It is not. And I cannot imagine ever changing that policy. I may require users to register with an email address, but wouldn't ever make them public.
"There's plenty of evidence. You choose to ignore it."
There is no evidence. Insisting that there is, yet refusing to point to it or provide it, just reinforces your disconnect from reality.
"You can't stop the beating without requiring registration."
You're confusing beating and trolling. And I've kept the trolling well under control simply by unpublishing everything you write.
The funny part - you keep trolling on here, telling me how irrelevant I am. Yet you keep coming back to tell me. If I'm really that irrelevant, why are you still here?
"Either way, the Anon Army wins." Yes all one of you.
What Anonymous posters??? I have changed a few lines of code, and "poof" they are gone!!!
I appreciate being anonymous. Some of the people who post here scare me and if I thought they would find out who I am and where I live I would never post here again.
Gregg, did you find a way to have anon posts just not show up? That'd be awesome, please explain..
Anon 7:26... just make up a name, any name... we have no way of finding out who you are, unless you tell us.. and even then...most of us don't care..
I agree with D. Boon way upthread - this is about having a consistent name to tie to a discussion. I have no idea who most of you are, but after a while I get a feel for what names say what, and so have some sort of image of a being on the other side I'm talking to.
If people don't want to go to even that trouble, would it at least be easy enough to sign your posts with "-- bob" or something of that sort? In long threads with lots of anonymous it's hard to tell who is who, even to keep the thread straight.
The huge fully-anonymous Japanese BBS "2ch" uses software that tags each post with a randomly generated ID that lasts for the thread, so you can see if two people in the SAME thread are the same person by the "100b73af" style random tags. Of course, if they change computers the tag will change but for most purposes it's workable, and it's not tied to actual permanent characteristics like an IP is. I don't know if standard blog style software have any similar option.
Try as you might, you won't be able to get what you want: The ability to make personal attacks. That is the one and only reason for the opposition to anonymity.
Gregg has changed nothing. The voices in his head are telling him things that aren't true. Pay him no mind.
And Anon soldier 7:26: There are many, many scary people here. You are right to fear them.
don't feed the trolls...don't feed the trolls...don't feed the trolls....
"Try as you might, you won't be able to get what you want: The ability to make personal attacks. That is the one and only reason for the opposition to anonymity."
Your unfounded paranoia suggests, to me, that you need therapy. The vast majority of personal attacks are coming from you, because you have no arguements or facts or evidence to offer, so you prattle on about your little band of imaginary friends. It would be cute if you were about four years old.
The people here who want to make personal attacks need therapy.
Their outrageously stupid statements prove this: comparing cars to guns, comparing the Chief to leprechauns, comparing the Republican candidates to human beings with the capability of thought.
There are fewer Anon soldiers because they know the battle is won. They've also grown tired of opposing the same mental weaklings. We don't compare useful objects to lethal objects. We don't chant for the "return" of someone who never existed as a real person to start with. We don't support candidates who spend millions of dollars to win only one delegate.
Maybe a therapist can give some people here a group rate.
Again, if I'm so irrelevant, why are you still here?
Why the strange compulsion to return, twice per day, to try to make me care about your insults?
Again, if I'm so irrelevant, why are you still here?
Why the strange compulsion to return, twice per day, to try to make me care about your insults?
Because he/she/it really doesn't have anything better to do?
This thread seems absurd.
Why not just require every poster to register with an email address?
Anyone can get an email address on yahoo, google, msn and others and post without revealing their identity
anon 11:27 your hypocracy is unmatched. Your sarcasm has no teeth. Your name reflects your brain power. This is not an attack ,this is self defense as this anonymous leftist attacks the right in broad general strokes. Like a terrorist bomber, boom and I'm out of here. You speak of mental weakness, I see no spine, my spineless anonymous poster, or is that poser. Some wonder why we want to know who drops words, just so we can give credit where credit is due, and vice versa. If this anonymous poser would care to be an individual by number we then could attribute all his or her posts to that one insaniac.....and have greater understanding to the big picture.
I wonder if it has more to do with the Socilaists creed, that of the whole, forsaking individualism. It soes seem the bulk of the anons are over there. Or maybe it is just that some who state superiority lack confidence enough to put a name on it......which is absurd, since the name means nothing, other than continuity.....sign in or sign out......balls or no balls
Ractivist:
Thanks for summarizing our point very well. You want to ID posters so you can wage personal attacks. You wish to do this because your party is filled with failures.
People are dead from yet another mass shooting, yet your group speaks out against reason and logic.
The nation is reeling from eight years of ineffective leadership. You show no thinking ability and no reasoning ability. You are exactly the type of person we envision when we laugh at the moronic posts here.
Thanks again.
Ractivist: This is part of the problem. The person is not a "leftist" or a "rightist". If you were to follow his (her?) posts over the months, they are willingly to jump to any side of the political debate if there's an opportunity to be nasty and degrading to someone. That doesn't stop people from trying to use the anonymous poster's vitrole as a tool to hate the other side.
It does nothing to further the discussion or improve our understanding. It's straight up destructiveness for the sake of destruction.
I thought that was the point here. This Anon came right back at me, swallowed the bait, hook ,line and sinker. Or did he, was it some one else? I'll never know, even if anon came back and said it was me anon. It was strictly attack and counter for the sake of proving the point Gordy started this thread with. At least there is only one Ractivist, one xian etc..yet who is anon, how many anons are there, one mans anon is another mans assanon. Its like calling in a vote with no tracking record, one person can call all day and place many votes, yet truly only represent one person.
I'll clarify, I don't hate anyone, left or right, I disagree plenty though.
If I call the last anon a moron, he at least knows that I disagree with his stance as a make believe in blog ville. He on the other hand is like a crank caller, which is rather a childish thing.
He says they get together and laugh at the moronic posts. Is that what intelligent people do, the club, deride others to feel superior. Or is that what people who think there intelligent do. Maybe he or she could get a radio show on Saturday mornings on WEFT.
I vote they sign up with a number at the minimum....anon8 etc...and stick to it.
Not sure what you're getting at there. If you'd like to elaborate, I'm sure it will be to everyone's benefit.
Ill be anon63656327324835873628746116164161371, to distinguish me from anon63656327324868735116164181371
I think it is hilarious that xian thinks so much of himself and his posts that he has to make an announcement that he won't respond to anon posts anymore. Are you kiddng me? If you don't want to respond to anon posts, that is your choice, but for crying out loud, come down off your high horse. Simply respond to the posts which you want to respond to and skip the melodramatic announcement. I don't understand why registered users complain about an anon poster and then continue to respond him/her? I posted earlier some of the points I like about posting anonymously and didn't receive one response, positive or negative. Yet there are numerous responses to the “Anon Army” poster from varous people. Similar to IP's statement about, “...we get the government we deserve”, well you get the posters you deserve, because you continue to respond to them.
Talk about MELODRAMATIC yadayadayadayada
"Talk about MELODRAMATIC yadayadayadayada"
No melodrama here. I don't care if anyone responds to my post. I simply find it hilarious that people continue to complain about the Anon Army poster, yet by continuing to respond to his/her posts engage him/her in a conversation which encourages him/her to return.
It is interesting though that you choose to respond sarcastically when I point out that I think xian's post is a little silly, instead of the posts which discuss the issue.
It has become clear that there is one particular sociopath who uses the registration function on this site to attack people. Often he (she) uses facts about the other person's life to attack them.
I have seen many constructive discussions derailed by this single poster who lives to destroy and hurt others.
As a result, I've decided to no longer respond to registered posters. I realize that I will miss some good points made by other registered posters, but the efficiency of time spent on registered posts is just not a very good return. I learn some, but not nearly as much as I would by reading the ananymous posters more specifically.
Great post. But there are several registered posters who use "facts" about a person to attack them. They can't win with their dumb arguments, so they resort to personal attacks.
So how do I know all 5 of the last Anon posts are not the same poster yanking everyones chain?
There's no need to puzzle it out, Run. Let's go for a walk or something instead :)
It's not me.
"So how do I know all 5 of the last Anon posts are not the same poster yanking everyones chain?"
Why does it matter who said what? If you respond to the content of a post, who posted it is irrelevant.
anon63656327324835873628746116164161371
It's not me. :-)
Sometimes I forget to sign in but am now careful not to post anonymously.
However, I notice that I get a different version of Illini Pundit with different posts (not just different arrangement)
if I sign in as anonymous from the version I get signed in as myself.
well you get the posters you deserve, because you continue to respond to them.
I believe there is a good deal of truth to that...
But folks who participate here tend to have very strong feelings surrounding their views and causes, and their online personas reflect those passions. It doesn't take a whole lot of reading to figure out that Ractivist wants revolution, Eggs wants to be left alone, Glock wonders what happened to the constitution, and Wayward just wants us to love everybody.
We come out here with sincere desire to share our views, to argue and debate, to try to win others to our side, or perhaps to be persuaded, ourselves. And bringing that level of passion to the table makes it awfully hard to ignore perceived personal attacks. Even when we know better.
Therein lies IP's puzzle of managing this forum. This is a community in many respects (a casual observer may be surprised to know just how many of us really do know each other beyond this blog), yet much of its value comes from the openness of it. I love to hear from a new voice with a fresh perspective or perhaps "inside info" that a particular discussion has been lacking. And I know many others who share that view.
But clearly, there are some folks who delight in simply stirring things up for no apparent reason other than to see others stirred up. And we are, indeed, at least partly responsible for their ongoing disruptive presence. Understandably so, but nonetheless partly responsible.
"But clearly, there are some folks who delight in simply stirring things up for no apparent reason other than to see others stirred up. And we are, indeed, at least partly responsible for their ongoing disruptive presence. Understandably so, but nonetheless partly responsible."
That's because registered users like yourself threaten people. People at your business also enjoy getting in people's faces and threatening them.
You don't want to hear new perspectives. You just want to wallow in your own ignorance.
Here's hoping the smoking ban is having a devastating effect on your place of business. The sooner you're out of business and out of town, the better.
Now we know that much pot does cause paranoia, after all.
Anonymous 7:16 pm
There are a host of pharmaceuticals specifically designed to help you cope with whatever it is that caused you to get on the wrong side of the lady you had the honor of addressing or any of her staff. I suggest finding time to try some of them out, and see how they work for you.
Kem
Cosign Kem
That was assanon 7:16
This discussion has run its course.
Thread closed.