Thursday 12 March 2009

How do we manage attacks from 'Anonymous' posters?




Throughout the past several years, Alan and I (along with many others) have scoured the internet looking for opportunities to educate people on the realities of absinthe. Apparently, another sorry soul (or souls) has been following us around, trying to refute all of the information we post.

Most people who read this blog, the now defunct Rend Fou, or any of the other dozen forums where they've seen the debate take place, can see through the vitriol and the lies. It also doesn't lend much credibility to our detractors when the majority of the attacks against us have been posted by 'Anonymous' users, despite dozens of requests for them to come out and identify themselves.

After some discussion, I think Alan and I have come to a good resolution.

We will continue to encourage open and civilized debate. Not only does it provide some interesting reading, it also helps to flush out some facts that otherwise wouldn't be known.

However, for a fair debate to occur, the identities of all of the participants should be disclosed. Please either post with your registered account, or sign your message before submitting it.

If an attack or criticism is made without proper identification of the person who made the post, we reserve the right either to edit the post, or delete it alltogether.

We'll try this out for a few months. If it doesn't work, then we will discuss the OpenID requirement, meaning we will at least have information on the back end of who made the post.

Happy posting!

3 comments:

Alan said...

Good post, Brian.

So, Anonymous, we are being very fair to you. If you persist with your attacks, do so openly. When we were on the Czech blog, we were never so ashamed that we had to hide our identities.

Above all, please consider, if you can, all the others who comment here. We don't want to discourage them from posting or to edit their postings.

So if you can be prepared to be a little more open here, it will be better for everyone else too.

OK?

The Absinthe Review Network said...

I challenge this Anonymous fellow to a rumble...

Anonymous said...

Amen to that. I always think if you're going to voice your opinion, be man enough (or woman enough) to stand behind it. Maybe that's the former newspaper journalist in me. But still, I think it's only fair.