Poll: Internet Accountability: The Solution (Opinions Please)

[Jimmyjames]

I was completely fascinated by the story of the man that went to jail over severe harassment. On one hand, I believe the right to free speech is hugely important and not to be taken for granted (free speech in terms of the free expression of ideas or opinions and not being persecuted as a result thereof). On the other hand, I think the kind of behavior this particular person exhibited is despicable and beyond reproach. In my humble opinion, insulting someone's deceased relatives behind a veil on convenient anonymity is a very callous, cowardly act.

It got me thinking that the problem is that no one has accountability for what they say on the internet the same way they do in real life. People can go and insult and belittle, and their reputation doesn't suffer at all, save for the particular forum to which they're contributing.

[EDIT I accidentally posted this before done]

My solution:

All people require a unique "online ID".

Basically, You have a consistent user ID which is anonymous, but is the same on all online forums and messenger services. In order to use a forum, you need to create an account which you specify your Username, age, and general location. Other users can see only this information, and also ALL other forums and posts therein. That way, if someone is being a jackass, they can't hide it. Any other user looking at this person's profile can see if they've been cursing at people or using racial slurs (along with any other poor behavior). Also, you could see if the person is doing something like misrepresenting themselves as a 12 year-old girl, for example.

What do you all think?

[EDIT 2]:

I need to clarify this a little I think. There would be NO WAY to connect an actual person with an online ID. You would only be able to see the other posts on other forums. Kind of like here, where you can see other users posts (which I find useful to see if I'm dealing with a troll or not).

[EDIT 3]: It's amazing how resoundingly negative the opinions are against this. Please remember, this is an idea not some formal proposal I'm making. It was based completely on the reaction I felt regarding the guy that was imprisoned for severe harassment on the net. My point was mainly whether or not there could be some way of self-policing on the internet. Insulting me is pretty counterproductive. I started this thread to start a discussion, nothing more.

 

[AboveUp]

This sounds like the exact same thing that people complained about when World of Warcraft tried to introduce it.

 

[Neuromaster]

I think it's a terrible idea. It'd be far too easy to correlate the "online ID" with a real name, in addition to opening up whole new avenues for cyberbullies etc.

I don't think that even ugly, reproachful speech should be criminalized. My "solution" is to frequent online communities with good moderation, and not to take anything people say online too seriously.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

It seems completely useless. Trolls don't care, hell they'd like it if they got a reputation.

As for regular people, a quick google search would quickly reveal all the sites they have accounts on, which is horrible. I have an account on a site for people with a certain fetish, and I don't want a bored Facebook friend to find out about it with a quick search.

 

[Imp Poster]

I also think people who support this are ID thieves.

 

[Jimmyjames]

I don't think that even ugly, reproachful speech should be criminalized. My "solution" is to frequent online communities with good moderation, and not to take anything people say online too seriously.

I'll agree with that, and I don't think hateful speech should be criminalized, either (in case that's what you think I mean). I'm more interested in the idea of accountability, and the problems the lack of it cause.

 

[Dragonsoulq]

-snip-

Seriously? No. Trolls will always exist, your solution is to strip all anonymity from people? Sometimes offensive things need to be said, sometimes people need to be told they're complete windbags, I don't want other people to know who I am when I say things like that. For example, this is something I never say to your face, but it's true and (IMO) needs to be said.

You are arrogant and short-sighted, you make judgements without ever consider the other-side of an argument or thinking about the actual consequences of you suggests. Trolls need to exist, they stop the internet getting to high minded

 

[Slash12]

No, just no. The solution is that people need to grow up and stop taking everything said on the internet to be a huge personal insult.

 

[Jimmyjames]

As for regular people, a quick google search would quickly reveal all the sites they have accounts on, which is horrible.

I don't think you understand. Your ID wouldn't be connected to your actual name in any way. It's just a way of seeing a bit about the person you are talking to by their conduct on the internet.

 

[Slash12]

As for regular people, a quick google search would quickly reveal all the sites they have accounts on, which is horrible.

I don't think you understand. Your ID wouldn't be connected to your actual name in any way. It's just a way of seeing a bit about the person you are talking to by their conduct on the internet.

Yeah but what if you and your friend hypothetically both know each other and both visit the same forum, say the escapist. You and your friend want to friend each other on the given forum and therefor, you both know each others ID. This then leads to the them being able to see everything you do.

 

[Dragonsoulq]

It would connect to your real name- via facebook or any other forum that you give any personal information on, incidentally to link different forum accounts together you would need a "Primary key" or a piece of information to link all of them. Your actual identity would likely be the only workable one.

 

[Jimmyjames]

You are arrogant and short-sighted, you make judgements without ever consider the other-side of an argument or thinking about the actual consequences of you suggests. Trolls need to exist, they stop the internet getting to high minded

Interesting proof of concept. I don't see what you think you're accomplishing by that remark other than making me angry.

And for the record, I was curious about opinions, not making policy. Lighten up. Ideas, brother, just ideas.

 

[Jimmyjames]

Yeah but what if you and your friend hypothetically both know each other and both visit the same forum, say the escapist. You and your friend want to friend each other on the given forum and therefor, you both know each others ID. This then leads to the them being able to see everything you do.

That's a good point, of course. Why is this a bad thing, tho? By nature of action wouldn't that lead to better conduct online?

For instance, would that guy that was talking about fucking the corpses of the deceased still say it if he knew his friends would know about it?

 

[Neuromaster]

I just basically don't see the lack of accountability as a problem. I stick to reasonably-well moderated communities like this one & basically feel fine about it.

And if I choose to hang out in a mostly unmoderated place (like a random FPS server), I just adjust my expectations accordingly. Trolling rarely bugs me. On the contrary, a well-executed troll can be hilarious [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPoKaoJu0m4] to watch, if you're not on the receiving end.

 

[Dragonsoulq]

The people involved should have just gone "troll" and ignored him. This is another example of the law getting involved because common sense didn't.

You are arrogant and short-sighted, you make judgements without ever consider the other-side of an argument or thinking about the actual consequences of you suggests. Trolls need to exist, they stop the internet getting to high minded

Interesting proof of concept. I don't see what you think you're accomplishing by that remark other than making me angry.

And for the record, I was curious about opinions, not making policy. Lighten up. Ideas, brother, just ideas.

I gave you my opinion, I said it was a bad idea, I explained why it was a bad idea, I then demonstrated why sometimes you have to somewhat offensive to get you point across, I do not think people should go around being pointlessly insulting, but since there is no way to moderate it in a general sense without impinging on free speech, nothing should be done.

 

[BonsaiK]

My solution:

All people require a unique "online ID".

Basically, You have a consistent user ID which is anonymous, but is the same on all online forums and messenger services. In order to use a forum, you need to create an account which you specify your Username, age, and general location. Other users can see only this information, and also ALL other forums and posts therein. That way, if someone is being a jackass, they can't hide it. Any other user looking at this person's profile can see if they've been cursing at people or using racial slurs (along with any other poor behavior). Also, you could see if the person is doing something like misrepresenting themselves as a 12 year-old girl, for example.

What do you all think?

[EDIT 2]:

I need to clarify this a little I think. There would be NO WAY to connect an actual person with an online ID. You would only be able to see the other posts on other forums. Kind of like here, where you can see other users posts (which I find useful to see if I'm dealing with a troll or not).

Sounds like stalker heaven. Sure, there might not be a name attached, but of someone figures it out... ouch. Then they've got you all over the damn internet. I like the idea that if someone were to reveal my identity on here I could just cancel my account and then start a new one with a different name and the two couldn't be linked. Also, how's this going to work with sites like Facebook that insist you use your real name? What if I want to be visible in one location but anonymous somewhere else? There's places on the Internet where I do business and in those places I'm very public, I'm easily google-searchable etc, but other places like here I like to be private, if I had one ID I couldn't do that. This is opening a huge pile of worms and will create massive problems.

It's not necessary anyway, because after all the Facebook guy got busted through his own ego. There's already mechanisms in place to catch dickheads, and true douchebags generally shoot themselves in the foot because of the whole "tree falls in a forest" thing - if they can't brag about their trolling, did it really happen? We don't need more laws, rules and systems when the existing laws, rules and system are actually quite effective. This sort of action reminds me of those daft political parties that use the stamping out of child pornography as a political football when the stuff is already illegal, or people who draft new "terror laws" when blowing shit up and killing multiple people has already been a severely-punishable crime everywhere in the world for hundreds of years. They don't really care about you, and they know the laws won't make any real difference, they just want to look like they're "doing something".

 

[Mozared]

I was completely fascinated by the story of the man that went to jail over internet trolling. On one hand, I believe the right to free speech is hugely important and not to be taken for granted. On the other hand, I think that kind of behavior is despicable and beyond reproach. No rational, sensitive human being should ever think that insulting someone's deceased relatives behind a veil on convenient anonymity is nothing other than a pathetic, cowardly act.

I stopped reading here.

Constant criticism and pisstaking on everything is needed in order for people to be able to relativize. I'm not saying you should go streaker at a funeral (that's a gathering organized specifically for doing the mourning), but as soon as something becomes 'too sacred' to insult, make jokes or think critically about, it's progression slows down to a standstill. Enter religions anno 2010.

Obviously I don't know exactly what story you're talking about, but if someone is influenced more by what some random person on the web is saying to them than by his real life experiences, he's got bigger problems than the troll. If you cannot see that, I doubt your solution I skipped will be of any value, no offense meant.

 

[Jimmyjames]

I gave you my opinion, I said it was a bad idea, I explained why it was a bad idea, I then demonstrated why sometimes you have to somewhat offensive to get you point across, I do not think people should go around being pointlessly insulting, but since there is no way to moderate it in a general sense without impinging on free speech, nothing should be done.

Now, why couldn;t you say it like that to begin with? There was no reason to insult me. The fact that I was asking for opinions kind of contradicts the idea that I'm not "consider[ing] the other-side of an argument or thinking about the actual consequences of you suggests"

 

[Dragonsoulq]

The idea that your not considering the ramifications of your proposal, you seem to think that it would be impossible to link a persons "Online ID" to the actual person. If you list all there forums posts, say from facebook, even if you don't show thier name. You will be able be find out who they are in short order. This is without going into how you would stop people setting up multiple online ID's.

Let's take an example: Say there is a forum for a workplace, now everyone has their "online ID" at some point, it seem that a whistleblower has been on another forums telling people about the sh*tty work conditions and how the boss is underpaying the staff. Boss checks posters "Online ID" ... Oh it matches to the profile our forum that Bob from accounting uses, looks like he's losing his job!

You might try to say there would be no way to link real people and their Online ID but it would be impossible to implement

 

[GenericAmerican]

Trolls could also use this. Say I hate this user, so I flame all his posts. This would just make it easier to flame him on other forums as well.