Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Anonymous commenting

I just got a comment on an old post from back in December of last year. The anonymous commenter apparently considered my opinion uninformed .. but rather than providing more information he/she chose to try and intimidate me into silence.

I find that kind of anonymous commenting troubling ... for all I know it could be someone I know. I have no idea who it is, although the commenter certainly knows who I am. That is playing dirty, I think.

I've always allowed anonymous comments on this blog. The idea is to allow people who are shy or even afraid of retribution to still be part of the public discourse and have their opinions and voices heard.

However, this rather unfriendly and vaguely threatening anonymous comment did set me back a bit and made me wonder if perhaps I should change my policy.

But I won't. That may well have been the intention. And I will not allow myself or anyone else to be silenced by someone who doesn't have the courage or decency to identify him/herself when challenging an assumption in public.

A point I made in my response to Mr. or Ms. Anonymous.

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