Wednesday 20 October 2010

Who needs anonymity?

Occasionally I receive anonymous comments. Most get published and one comment that was published recently criticised my blog because of the small number of followers. This number does not bother me. For me these blogs are a method of letting anyone know my thoughts on any subject that takes my fancy. It is good to see some comments as I treat them like a conversationa and that is how ideas develop.

There is one follower who sent me a very nice email about a year ago and I became a follower of his blog. He now has 3047 followers as well as me. It looks like some people collect followers like trophies and this means that the actual numbers of followers is meaningless.

Andrew Marr criticised blog writers recently by calling them "inadequate, pimpled and single". Inadequate relates to task so I am not sure how Andrew gets to this conclusion. Pimples aren't relevant and I don't think marital status rates too highly in my philosopher of the year competition. I didn't hear his comment in context but I suppose I can relate his feelings to some of the comments that I get. One such comment has been deleted because it was offensive. I am keeping the others just in case the authors wish to come back to them.

Some comments are not relevant. Some commentators have their own agenda and don't even try to relate their comment to my blog. Invariably these comments are anonymous. If these commentators are unable to give their identity then it may be the case, in the words of Andrew Marr, that they are "socially inadequate" and "very angry people".

I am not sure if you can come to these conclusions from specific comments but I would much prefer to deal with individual comments than evaluate the commentators. The trouble with anonymity is that no defence is needed. No supporting evidence is needed. You can say what you like with reputation intact. I am sure there is a case for witholding identity but I just can't see it with my blogs.

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