Anonymous Comments: The Problem With Not So Friendly People

Blogging offers many benefits for growing your business, but it is not without its issues. The Washington Post recently did an article on threats women bloggers face. At the heart of the story was Kathy Sierra, whose Creating Passionate Users blog was a must read for anyone in the technology industry. Unfortunately, last month, Kathy stopped blogging.

Last month, anonymous commenters made numerous threats to Kathy. They commented about slitting her throat and posted pictures of her with a noose around her neck. It was extremely unsettling. After that, Kathy cancelled her speaking engagements and stopped blogging. She also reported the incident to the police.

While I’ve never been threatened online, I have dealt with some annoying trolls on a handful of message boards I’ve run. I’ve decided that the most efficient way to deal with such people is to block their IP address and forbid them from commenting. I also set up a commenting policy that states that posts promoting violence, hatred, and the like will be removed immediately. And it’s the reason why I moderate all comments.

In 2004, Seth Godin posted about how the web would be a more civilized place without anonymity. I tend to agree. Posting hurtful and/or threatening remarks is never ok. If you don’t like what someone says, attack the argument, not the person. If more people followed that, it would solve a lot of problems.

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