Is GI_Jane prepared to submit her/his real name?

This was a question asked by Graham Young as to who would like to provide proper Id. I have said yes.
It was raised 'by me' over a racist post. I know several people were arrested and charged few months ago for doing to very same as this hatred spreader.

My point is if people refuse to put their name to a comment then its not fair that I cant or my people cant trace them to make them answerable if they have broken the law.
This then denies my people myself or anybody else in that postion natural justice.

Celivia I too wish to protect my family from racial hatred such as I saw here.
In contrast to my family and peoper judging by the comments being sent SMS around need that safety net even more.. I am not gambling person but I would think that makes my family far more at risk than yours. Either way I agreed it was a good idea to give people a choice.

As as a member of pale I say to you Pale is their membership name. If you dont like it ignore it just a I ignore some posts. Do not dicate to others. I am sure they wont loose any sleeep over it.

I thought that was a very sensible and fair comment which I think was first suggested by pale but maybe not, maybe they just agreed with somebody elsethat both you and I can have a choice.
Oh and in case anybody *cares I have made enquires and we do have a case against the offender to my people, problem is Id.

I do not see why I* and my people should be disadvantaged again for something that wasnt our peoples fault.

Lawyers are expensive enough without having to pay for them to act for us applying through GY and Why should it be HIS problem.

Whats He get out of all this trouble.

TarynW,

I absolutely detest racists - they are the most despicable of all. They are always cowards, and they always "hit" on someone or some group they deem vulnerable. As to not signing their name ... of course, not ... they don't want to be held accountable.

I have received unsigned hate-mail, which was rather a costly task for those involved. As the individual/s had my name, surname and suburb, they sent copies of the same garbage to everyone with my initital and surname to the suburb in which I live; presumably going through the phone book.

I don't know how this forum is monitored as submissions appear immediately on site as they are written - at least by me. I assumed that the monitor was, in fact, a program which detects certain words and deletes the entire message. Is there a human monitor? If so, they must speed read.

Whilst racist name calling is abhorent, there are also those who never use such language, but by using sophistry are actually more malicious and vindictive than those who do sink to racist abuse.

In response to CJMorgan

“However, I think it's an abuse of that aspect of freedom of speech when people hide behind pseudonyms in order to promulgate hatred and division, or in order to defame others.”

Surely the key point is “promulgate hatred and division, or in order to defame others” (regardless of anonymity). Agree, that is an abuse of freedom of speech (which is separate from the issue of whether it should be banned or not). And what one person defines as “bigoted” & “promulgating hatred & division” is often exactly the way those of opposing viewpoints see that person’s point of view, eg the frequent inaccurate use of the term “racist” and “bigot”.

“I think that debate about controversial topics tends to suffer because some….post (comments here) they wouldn't dream of saying in real life.”

And the reason many wouldn’t is they’d be unfairly labeled bigoted & racist.

I hope that CJMorgan is not implying he is lilly-white here? Some of his contributions on such topics do nothing but demean unless he sees that as adding to the debate?

“We could all think of pseudonymous contributors to this forum whose bigoted posts we automatically regard sceptically.”

We can indeed, and we can also think of named contributors as well.

“on controversial topics….it's pretty obvious that anonymity contributes to a lower standard of debate than we might otherwise have.”

Or a higher one, unless your definition of quality is mono-opinion, variety within a very tight band, or simply spouting the PC line.

PALEIF – in reply to your post a while back – “is it fair?” as others have said, I don’t think its fair that your’e posting under that name. As soon as someone has a go at you, you sometimes presume or construe, that they are having a go at your organization. You could use your own name or moniker & still push their agenda when it’s relevant, instead of the free publicity you bring to that organization by posting under that name every time you post on a totally unrelated topic.

Ultimately, whatever the rules are, let’s stick to them. There is already a 'recommend this comment for deletion’ button. It’s then up to the moderators to act on that. If the moderators find you guilty, either a 3 strikes policy or immediate dismissal, at the moderator’s discretion. As an absolute start, foul ad-homs could be the first to go. These people add nothing & only detract from the debate. That would force people to actually think & formulate an argument rather than personally attack. This system seems to work quite well on other sites. In the short time I’ve been here, I can think of some of the “I’m holier than thou” brigade (& I’m not talking about the “B” who Robert mentions – who is the frequent recipient of much unjustified hatred – pathetic really) who would have had deleted posts / been banned just as surely as some of the people they decry.

Finally, if people don’t like the system, there's certainly no shortage of altenative sites where they can go which cater to their PC-friendly world view. What I like about OLO (as in the operators) is that it is relatively unique in that, apart from being apolitical, it tolerates a wide variety of opinion, as evidenced by the articles it provides.

You've got some nerve, I'll give you that!!

That you KGB stand as some sort of arbiter of ethical values if nothing else shows you have a cynical sense of humour!