To Register or Not to Register
We’ve been grappling with the issue of registration on the site. After a particularly frustrating few weeks at the beginning of the summer handling some aggressive troll activity, we began requiring registration in order to post comments on the site. We’ve had mixed feelings about that decision from the beginning. Is the increased civility worth…
We’ve been grappling with the issue of registration on the site. After a particularly frustrating few weeks at the beginning of the summer handling some aggressive troll activity, we began requiring registration in order to post comments on the site. We’ve had mixed feelings about that decision from the beginning. Is the increased civility worth the foregone informational exchange and sense of community? Last week we solicited reader feedback on the topic and the majority of readers who commented were in favor of keeping it. Of course, this isn’t too surprising given that you had to register in order to comment! Anyway, we are very sensitive to readers who had their online identities appropriated and to those who prefer the greater accountability that comes with the consistent use of recurring handles. However, on balance, we don’t think it’s worth it.
We were interviewed last week by a local paper and were asked what the most positive surprise had been for us since starting the blog. As we were giving our answer–the incredible diversity of the readership and the frankness of the discussions on such issues as race and class–we realized that this is precisely what we had sacrificed in starting to require registration. Brownstoner.com would not be the site it is without its core group of readers and commenters, most of whom readily signed up for the registration process and continued to post regularly. However, the lack of interplay with less frequent contributors changed the energy of the site in recent weeks. To any of you who have been following the reviews of the new book called The Long Tail, this should not be a surprise.
We hope that those who have registered already will continue to sign in and use their regular handles; what will naturally happen, we think, is that those comments from people who are logged in will carry greater weight in the dialogue and that anonymous comments of a dubious nature will be taken less seriously. Plus, anyone who’s logged in cannot have his/her handle “stolen”. It’s rare that we’re away from the site for more than an hour during the day, so if you see a comment from a troll, rather than giving him the satisfaction of responding, just ignore it: We’ll be deleting it soon.
We hope everyone can respect this decision and try to do everything possible to create a courteous and constructive atmosphere on the site.
Respect,
Brownstoner
Thank you for reconsidering! I enjoy the site and the forum, but do not want the hassle of another password to remember. Also, the discussions are definitely much more interesting and in the true spirit of being in New York
We hereby promise to stop talking about the troll.
Starting……NOW!
To all Anonymous posters…If you insist on not registering, at least sign your post with some kind of name at the end of the posting. It makes it alot easier to keep a conversation going. Having to reference a person by “Anonymous at 12:01pm” or “I’m the orginal Anonymous poster” etc gets tiring, especially on a 100 post thread burner.
ItsAWrap
Oh yeah- I recognize that jerk’s backslash anywhere. Still haven’t learned to type, I see.
Mr B,
Although I still prefer registration, I must reluctantly admit that, along with the increased civility, there was a drop in the energy level on this site.
Dropping registration CAN work as long as you frequently delete offensive posts. I’m sure that will be a PITA for you, but, after all, it’s your site.
FWIW I’ll keep using the sign-in process. I will do my best NOT to engage trolls–I long ago learned not to try refuting their nonsense, but even pointing out trolling behavior seems to make these creeps happy, so I’ll refrain from that.
Fine CHP. I look forward to reading posts from you that are about something other than the evil troll who\’s out to get you. Enough, please!
yes, I did not quite understand why mandate registration. I prepfer your blog but for comparsion sake, curbed.com does not require registration, and attempts to filter out post from the Knuckle heads.
Can you ignore him using your display name to link to a picture of a beheaded Black man? How about when he posts your real name on a thread as he did last night? Or do you really just like reading racist comments? He’s not just an annoyance- how would you feel if a total stranger somehow found out your real name and could very easily then find out where you live. Well- he’s done that. It’s no longer a matter of sticks and stones. NOW do you get it? Probably not.
As probably the biggest troll victim on this site, along with Bx2Bklyn, I can say the last few weeks were blissfully quiet, no long having to defend my cyber identity from the troll posting as me. Maybe I’m a raging egomaniac, but having given myself a cyber identity, I feel I can handle rising and falling on my own words, I don’t need help.
BUT – when the troll started posting incredibly awful, even evil, photograph links under B2B’s handle, and then accusing her of being the author of that evil, that went too far. I was very happy to register.
This weekend, when the registration went down, the troll wasted no time in posting a fake CHP post, WITHIN AN HOUR OF THE REGISTRATION GOING DOWN! That means that he/she/they are regular readers, and probably regular posters (CrownHeightsProwd, perhaps?) OK, here we go again. Mr.B deleted it after a while. No sooner than that,the troll actually posted my last name on this site. I have a couple of ideas how he got it, but unless it is someone I know, and I can’t imagine who, as not that many people in my circles know what Brownstoner is, let alone my screen name on it, that goes way above and beyond the pale of trollish annoyance. Brownstoner deleted it pretty quickly, but the damage is done. For the same reasons many people love to revel in being “anon”, I chose my screen name to be just as anon, but with a continuity to carry on a conversation.
Long story long, I’m giving this a trial run. As someone said this weekend, this site does not revolve around me, and I don’t expect it to. In addition to being fun and a community service, this is a business, and I fully understand that one or two people’s needs cannot be tended to in the big picture. This site will continue whether I participate or not, and I wish everyone well. I will miss everyone having a name, however, it added a continuity that is very lacking addressing people as anon 3:36.
Here’s hoping for a safe environment in the future.