I’m inclined to prefer that commenters be committed enough to create a permanent web footprint of the things they say before commenting here.

Why not just subject all comments to moderation and be done with it? Are the comments pages of this blog searchable on google/yahoo? Is there a way to disable that? That would probably help those of us who don’t want to be difficult but want to avoid creating a permanent web footprint of things we’ve said on sometimes touchy issues.

Take a moment & go to the A Harris County Lawyer blog & or Grits for Breakfast blog. While both are good blogs, and I follow both, one can’t help but to notice the pissing matches going on between the Anonymous folks that seem to know each others names. If one doesn’t know the Anons. true name they are refered to simply as 05:32 or 10:01. Then come back to Defending People and finish reading if you wish.

Welcome Back, What did I tell ya?
When they are finished belittling each other or correcting other peoples spelling they simply go down in blog history as 05:32 and or 10:01 to the outsider that is. There is no way in hell you can honestly have an adult conversation with an Anon. especially if they ALL LOOK ALIKE. Get it? Mr. B. is doing us all a favor by finally seperating the boys from the men & girls from the women. Read his post before replying and you’ll feel better in the morn. A verifiable email address attached to the so-called nickname is not a frigin Anonymous.

“Exceptions will be considered for nicknames and for established web personalities whose true identities I know, like the lads at PopeHat” does not mean that no other exceptions will be considered.

Clearly, this policy is a work in progress. I’ll take every case on its own merits. People who have established web personalities with their own blogs, they have a sort of accountability because of the time they’ve invested in the credibility of their noms de blog.

By the way, I don’t desire to be understood by everyone. The only way to accomplish that is to write for the slowest kid in the classroom; I know from personal experience that that won’t fly with the other kids.

By the way — I would use “btw,” but I feel the same way about abbreviations as I do anonymous commenters. Newbies might not understand their meanings and I truly want to be inclusive. I think some want to make the newbies pay their dues — why should we make it easier for them, when we had to work at it? Isn’t there enough of that in how law associates are treated?

By the way, I too published the complete Declaration of Independence as the July 4th post on my blog, Ethic Soup.com. Very few have read it. It’s probably the least-read post of all. I guess it’s old news and not very interesting to most. I feel certain that few people have actually read the whole document. Sad. As an American, it’s really one of those things you should do before you die.

If you’re interested in the Burr Oak Cemetery mess, check out Ethic Soup and the following two articles:

http://www.ethicsoup.com/2009/07/burr-oak-cemetary-mama-where-are-you-theyve-robbed-your-grave.html

http://www.ethicsoup.com/2009/07/where-is-emmett-tills-coffin-where-are-the-babyland-graves-.html

Do stay the course on this new direction. It hopefully will take as a default position–and yet still be accommodating to class bloggers, writers, thinkers and responsible non-wimp commenters who deserve anonymity. One’s real identity is almost always important for accountability and quality of discourse.

The work to create intelligent exceptions is well worth the effort. The best argument for this is what happens every day at Above The Law. Go to ATL and see for yourself: the emergence of a new class of highly educated but nameless haters, innuendo-hurlers, wankers and drugstore cowboys.

Dan

A foolish consistency etc.