On anonymous comments

[ciphergoth]

(Unrelated note: LJ is under a denial-of-service attack last I heard. Things may be slower than usual. I hope more net vandals start turning up mysteriously dead in unpleasant ways.)

Inspired by events in faerierhona's journal.

Question: when people get abusive comments in their journal, how come they don't just delete them?

So far I haven't had abusive comments here, but I've seen it happen in other journals. I can see some reasons why those people don't want to delete those comments - I'm guessing that part of it is a "standing up to it" thing - but that I can stand up to it isn't in doubt, it's whether it will benefit me or anyone I care about to do so instead of silently deleting it.

If I think someone's just trolling my journal or trying to get a rise - anonymously or otherwise - I'll not bother to reply, I'll just delete the comments. I'm only interested in justifying myself to strangers in so far as either I genuinely hope either to bring or gain enlightenment or it will entertain me to do so.

As a matter of general policy, I leave anonymous posting on in my journal, and I have IP logging off. But this is so that people who don't yet have LJs can comment, and so my friends can tell me interesting things under cover of anonymity if they need to - I've seen and made interesting use of this possibility so I'm open to it.

Comments

?

[ergotia.livejournal.com]

Is this like a tell me what you really think of me sort of thing, or a tell me how much you fancy me thing, or what? Bit confused......



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Re: ?

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Oops, I hadn't seen that interpretation! No, it's a declaration of policy true for all LJ entries. I've reworded a little to address the question, but maybe I'll reword completely.

xxx

Re: ?

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

I've now completely reordered and reworded it to shift the emphasis. Re-reading, what I wrote before did sound very much like the sort of thing you're suggesting!

Contextual interpretation

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, I saw the original (or more probably the first edit) on my friends page, and interpreted it exactly as it was meant... but I already have an interest in privacy and anonymity in online communications, so perhaps I start off with the right context.