Thank You Thank You!!

It's been increasingly hard to keep one anonymous straight from another. Should I believe that 6 different people feel strongly about a particular issue or is it just one person with an afternoon off? Not a complete cure but on the right track.

Removing the Anonymous option is fine, though I (perhaps hard-headedly) still view it as an argument of semantics.

I would request that you not give in to the request of some users and require the use of real names. If someone wants to post their identity online for cred in an argument on Salon, that's their decision... but that doesn't change the fact that it's foolish.

Warnings do we get?

Well, I for one am quite glad of this change, since this "Anonymous" character seems to be rather mean-spirited, anyway!

:)

Thank you for this change. I think you're correct that nothing will fully "solve" the problems of abusive posts, but this should go a long way. As you say, if people want to express something anonymously they can contact the writers or editors directly.

Great job!

Thank you, Joan and salon.

This is totally gonna work like all blists do...

If nothing else, the campaign shills and serial bomb-throwers are going to either stop, emulate factcheck2 and own their letters, or burn enormous amounts of time creating multiple letter writing id's. Less chaff to comb through, then, my own letters notwithstanding... ; )

Completely the right way to go.

Thank you, merci, and amen.

Yup

This is a great change to improve the quality of dialogue in the letters. Thank you Joan - wonderful. I'll read the correspondence more now.

Thank you, Joan. I'll finally be able to block all those annoying "comments" written by be-bop-o.

I'll have to write some conciliatory epistles towards Obama for a while. Get some eyes looking somewhere else.

Anonymity is generally just asking for trouble in a letters section, so I'm glad that it's being removed. I totally see the reasoning behind anonymity on Cary Tennis's letters section, though, and wish there were a way we could preserve it there and there alone.

Thank for for this. There have been too many abusive posts and I am happy to know that Salon will monitor those and remove the nasty ones. One should be able to comment, criticise and argue without being rude and insulting.

I also think this was a good move. It will help keep Salon letters an interesting and integral part of the site. I find that Salon letters are generally a cut or two above what you tend to find on the Internet and I suspect this move will only contribute to their overall quality.

Thank you.

Now, just in time for a bruising election we've made it easier to be thin skinned.

Toughen up people. Scrolling past and ignoring anonymous comments was NEVER hard to do. More importantly hearing from people who disagree with your, even cowards who write in fanatic terms, is really more important than listening to people who agree with you.

I'm totally dissapointed.

Mike

I recently saw two "anons" slugging it out against each other. Maybe it was the same person with split personalities. THis will get rid of some of the wierdness.

I've grown to enjoy your iconic, drive-by posts. Most of the time. Still laughing about those machine-gun nests along the border. You probably got a finger wagging for using the P-word though.

I agree with the post above about keeping various anonymous posters straight. And it's annoying to try line up their posts with the responses to them, as well.

But what the letters really need is a hierarchical, threaded layout -- like Slashdot. There are plenty of times I'd like to respond directly to a letter, but my message may be 100 letters after it, and how could anyone keep track of what I'm responding to? Further, I can't often read through 100 messages after it to see whether someone already responded.

I understand that there are difficulties in implementing such a system well, especially for an audience of non-techo-geeks, so I am willing to wait. But I'd just like to log the request. :)

And there was much rejoicing!!

I also look forward to rating fellow posters. My tendency is generally to ignore the truly awful posters in the hopes they’ll go away – but I love the idea of pointing out what crap their post is and then ignoring them.

I like this. At least when the abusiveness is tied to a name, I can tell who is a crackpot thanks to previous behavior (like that factcheck2).

Count me as another real-name poster who thinks this policy change is long past due.

In general, Salon has some of the best letter writers on the web. This move should only enhance the positive experience of it's users.

My only concern is Salon removing the ability to post anonymously, in the "Since You Asked" section. Is there a way that Salon can keep the ability to post incognito, for Cary's letters alone?

I'm glad that you've removed the ability to post anonymously, although I did make use of it a few times. Too many people were abusing it to post personal attacks.

Losing the option to anonymously post sensitive and/or personal information is a drawback, though. Perhaps there could be some kind of editorial screening for these letters? For instance, those who want to share personal information in the "Letters" section without revealing their identities could have their letters reviewed and vetted by one of the editors or columnists, then published as "name witheld" by Salon. (IIRC, the site's old "Letters to the Editor" column did this occasionally.)

As for future areas of improvement, how about threaded letters, ignore lists, and peer moderation? Being able to include video, pictures and working links in letters would be nice, too.

A 5 grand donation to be able to type whatever we want.

And force people to use their real names and home addresses. A picture would be nice, as well as a map to their house and a list of their kids and where they go to school, a list of food allergies, and the like.