Should anonymous comments be allowed? We say "no"

I wanted to share an interesting email that was sent out yesterday by NYT (in their Circuits email).

We have debated a lot internally about whether someone can come into our community and comment on reviews without revealing who they are. We landed quite simply at NO. You cant comment unless you become a member. While our writers will lose the opportunity of hearing a lot of potentially good feedback, we are taking this tiny step to guard them from what could be an offense. We thought the trade off was worth it.

Take a look at the email... a fun and telling story.

Thursday, April 26, 2007
THIS WEEK IN CIRCUITS: Looking Perfect, One Pixel at a Time

Is It Time for An Online Code of Conduct?

When I was just out of college in the late 1980's, I made a lot of computer house calls in New York (all right, apartment calls). During those years, I learned an awful lot about people and the dichotomy between their public and private personalities.

One client in particular has never left my mind. She was a wealthy woman with an astonishingly huge apartment -- and an astonishingly sour personality.

Whenever menials like me were around, she played a game whose name, I now realize, was "You're Wrong."

It began the moment she answered the doorbell. "Well, don't just stand there like a mannequin. I'm not paying you $25 an hour to just stand there. Go inside."

So, mumbling apologies, I entered the apartment and set down my bag next to the computer desk.

"Not there, not there!" she shrieked. "You'll get dirt on the carpet! Put it out there in the pantry. Have some respect for people's things!"

If I then reached to turn on the computer, it was, "Don't do it yourself! How do you expect me to learn if you do everything for me? Don't treat me like I'm some kind of idiot!" But if, on the next visit, I invited her to turn on the machine herself, she shot back, "How should I know how to turn it on? If I knew how to use the computer already, I wouldn't be paying you $25 an hour, now would I?"

No matter what you said, on any subject, no matter how neutral, Mrs. Cronkwitz could find fault with it. (Yes, this was the same woman who berated me for suggesting that her daisy-wheel printer couldn't print graphics.) Her simple rule was: "If you can't say something negative, don't say it at all."

I think about Mrs. Cronkwitz's game every time I read the comments on any online forum that accepts anonymous postings, like Digg.com or YouTube. It's all a big contest to see who can spit with the most venom on any product, any idea, any topic.

Just once, I'd love to see how many products, ideas and topics these people come up with themselves. (Actually, I already know: None, because most of 'em are still in high school.)