Sign Your Name Across My Blog...

After noting yesterday Mr. Epp's observation that anonymity online breeds "coarser and meaner" discourse, I had a brief conversation with one of my media acquaintances. He has actually been left with a very sour impression of the blog world, specifically because of insults from folks who don't have the courage to put their names to their words. He can take it, but when his kids see some of that online invective, well, that's tough to swallow.

This acquaintance's experience puts anonymity and civil discourse in a useful perspective. I tolerate anonymous comments, but I ask that, anonymous or not, if you're going to criticize someone, you consider whether you'd be willing to say it to that person's face. Maybe a better way to think about it is whether you would be willing to offer your criticism to that person's face in front of that person's kids, or at the dinner table with that person's spouse and parents and best friends watching.

Now don't get me wrong: I'm not saying you can't call a spade a spade, or a crook a crook, or corruption corruption. The Madville Times has certainly done so, and will continue to do so. I simply suggest that if you are going to criticize any public figure -- a reporter, a blogger, a mayor (or people trying to recall a mayor) -- you should be willing to put your name to that criticism. The subjects of criticism deserve to know who's doing the criticizing. They also benefit from seeing their critics as fellow neighbors, with friends and families, rather than dehumanized pseudonyms online (see? it works both ways!). They also deserve the opportunity to hold their critics to the same standards the critics use to criticize them.

Public discourse should always be a two-way street... or, in the case of the blessed blogosphere, a billion-way street. So keep those comments coming. And practice fearless citizenship: sign your name across the blogs!

Oh, and the post title? Just our little 80s flashback of the morning: Terence Trent D'Arby (now Sananda Maitreya), channeling Prince (the motorcycle!) and Michael Jackson (the near rumble! the pool cue!). Not textually relevant beyond the title, just a little added groove.