Some of you may have found our previous post on internet trolls interesting. The post has proved to be prophetic; it is clear that over the last 48 hours this blog has been targeted by Trolls.
As a result of this we have had to disable anonymous comments for the moment. If you want to comment you have to do it as member of this blog or using an OpenID. We are truly sorry it has come to this. We are aware that many MSers who visit our site don’t necessarily want to identify themselves.
As a result of this we have had to disable anonymous comments for the moment. If you want to comment you have to do it as member of this blog or using an OpenID. We are truly sorry it has come to this. We are aware that many MSers who visit our site don’t necessarily want to identify themselves.
A sensible solution hopefully.Don't feed the trolls!
ummmm I can see this is a tricky situation. The real question is why do contributors to this blog want to be anonymous? What is wrong with using a Pseudonym, many authors write under a different name. I think it is useful to be able to attach a name to the article even if it is only a pen name. Given time readers of this blog would get to recognise regular contributors. Wouldn't it be tricky if there were hundreds of different books written by Anonymous
We can block specific names using the spam filter, so if someone wanted to troll using a pseudonym we can simply block them using that name; they would have to register using a new name.
Hello Prof G,Yup, tedious for the webmaster but surely even a troll could learn that he is not welcome.PS I'm sure you won't block me
In theory I agree with what Patrick says about pseudonyms and that's why I had created this profile. Then went back to anonymous because the fake name made me feel like some sort of imposter.
I have never been "Anonymous" on this blog. If I have something to say I "own" it. I can understand why some may be reluctant to use their own name – e.g. employer not knowing of MS – not that I can imagine employers "trolling" MS blogs! I would love to use a pseudonym but really only for fun – so if you see "Angelina Jolie" posting sometime soon don't be too surprised about her true identity 🙂 It's just me 'acting out' my fantasy living life large with Brad Pitt!
I think it's good to require at least some sort of official registration somewhere. I only choose to show my first name, and this is my real first name, but the idea of truly anonymous commenting without any registering authority whatsoever never works once a blog gets to a certain size. Registration can't stop trolls entirely, but it definitely slows them down.