We’re testing out a new feature that will give each person posting a comment in a story a unique “Commenter ID.”
This ID will belong to that person throughout their comments on that story only, regardless of whether their commenter name is changed. It won’t persist through multiple articles.
We hope that this will continue to allow completely anonymous conversations; and, at the same time, preventing those who take advantage of anonymous comments to comment under multiple names in one story from doing so.
Commenter ID will be active only for comments from 11:59am today onward.
As we test this, please let us know your opinions here, via Facebook message, or on the site.
Here’s an example of what Commenter ID looks like.
Commenter ID persists, even if I log out or change my name.
I do not post comments on Facebook as I am not a Facebook user/account holder. I hope this newspaper continues to allow comments to be posted directly to Valley Voice.
We definitely won’t be switching to Facebook comments! I can’t stand them, personally.
Ditto! 🙂
So now all of a sudden anonymity is a problem when the opinion differs of certain groups. People are going to be given an ID tag so they are identified. Several months ago , my anonymity was exposed while using an alias, by your staff, when I had an opinion about the controversy with the hospital. No other person was ever identified publicly that used an alias. Only myself. I called and complained to your newspaper and got an apology, however, I questioned the genuineness of what was said. I was told “we don’t have the technology to identify people”. However, you miraculously had the technology to reveal my identity. Your paper isn’t willing to listen to both sides objectively.
Teresa, you still have the ability to comment under any name you want. No one is taking away anonymity here, but we are making transparent attempts for one person to comment under ten different names in the same article. This happens on both sides of the hospital issue, and on other articles.
Comment on another post, you’ll see the ID changes. The ID only stays in one article’s comments. You can be Teresa here and someone else in a different article.
The issue has been on this site for ages. The idea that this is related to alternative viewpoints falls flat — if you think that is a factor, it would have been done much sooner.
We have been working on this for a while. This was the best solution. If you feel so inclined to call my bluff, look and see whether anything like this is available for our WordPress CMS. It’s not — this was coded in-house.
Personally I think its a great idea and seems to be working quite nicely. Congratulations on outsmarting those who were using multiple names so it would appear that their viewpoint/agenda was also held by so many others.
Yeah, I have been Facebook-free for about 8 years now.
It’s shocking to me that freedom of speech means “journalists” can print lies about people and they just have to sit and take it. As a friend said to me today, if I were a fish I’d be embarrassed to be wrapped in The Valley Voice.
How do I delete my comment that just has my first name?