Letters to the Editor
Bryce Anderson
Published Letters: 30 Editor's Choice: 5
-
All is in chaos
[Read the article: It's hard to be a dude these days]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I agree with the notion that it's a very confusing time to be a young person (though, being 29, it may be time for me to stop thinking of myself as such). We've got far higher expectations for our own financial and emotional success, and fewer opportunities to live up to those expectations. We've got no one model of success to live up to. Where our parents had a relatively narrow set of socially acceptable choices, today's society is more likely to step back and say, "whatever makes you happy." There are more ways to structure our careers, more ways to structure our relationships, more ways to structure our own sense of meaning. It only makes sense that this would leave us all scratching our heads, wondering if we're doing life right. Choosing our life paths has become more complicated than choosing between cell phone plans.
Is this a bad thing? I think not. Instead, I think some confusion is a reasonable price to pay for a more flexible and tolerant social order. Without the guide of a single concept of manhood that men are expected to strive for and women are expected to desire, it stops being a question of "what do women want?" and starts becoming about "what does this individual woman want?" I think men still make the mistake of thinking that the former question is still relevant, a mistake that leads to more than a little misunderstanding.
-
On Ymity.
[Read the article: Who are you, Anonymous?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You might want to take a closer look at the Slashdot moderation system. I think the distinguishing feature of their handling of anonymous comments is not simply the epithet "anonymous coward". It's that, by default, users don't see anonymous comments. They're still around, and can be viewed by changing your threshold, but because people have to go out of their way to view them, they cause minimal disruption.
Now, Slashdot's system also allows some users to add or remove points from individual posts. So a reasonably good anonymous posting can be raised up so that everyone sees it.
To me, it seems like a win-win-win situation. Most people don't have to wade through the dreck, good anonymous postings still have a chance to shine, and no letters need to be deleted.
I think the last point is important. Deleting is an extreme measure, because it makes the Letters section a less open forum. Also, once you start deleting anything, clueless people (I'm lookin' at you, Bill O'Reilly) start assuming that anything that remains must have the editors' imprimatur.
As nasty and small-minded as some Anonymous writers have been, I don't think we should lose the anonymity option. There are quite a few subjects where I'm far more open about my opinions when I'm sure they won't be traced back to me in my real life, and I'm sure a lot of other people feel the same way.
If you can get a good moderating system going, it should remove the need for a lot of basic policing.
-
More advice
[Read the article: Who are you, Anonymous?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'd like to echo another user's request: Put the name of the poster at the top of the post, not the bottom. If we've gotten to the point where a certain poster has thoroughly discredited himself, and we no longer care what he has to say, then it's a real time saver to not have to read three paragraphs before we recognize his distinctive odor. On the other hand, if we like a writer, seeing his moniker is a signal to pay attention.
I reject the idea that we should dispense with anonymity because "we're all anonymous anyways". Not me. I'm writing under my real name, and googling for my name shows two hits in the top ten. It may come back to bite me in the future, but I think that I can be mostly proud of my opinions, and feel no need to dissociate myself from them.
Yeah, yeah. I'll never hold political office as long as I live.
Still, there are some subjects that are inflammatory enough that I won't go public with my opinions. Also, I might have experiences that others would find helpful, but going into them in too much detail could lead to embarrassment for other people involved. For those times, I'd like the option to post anonymously, and I think I'll use the option responsibly.
Offtopic: Oh, and moodyriver? Not since Nelson Mandela has one man shown such courage and fortitude in the face of intense persecution. You are one of the great heroes of our age!
http://letters.salon.com/opinion/walsh/salon/2007/07/26/letters/permalink/31531f746bc182f33152bd9dda30e8b4.html
Sheesh.