Tami Hoag owns up

From her wonderful crime novel, THE 9TH GIRL, here's Ms Hoag on my favorite subject:

"It's a shark feeding frenzy. Rapacious animosity hidden behind the faceless mask of anonymity."

She goes on:

"Cyberbullying is rampant. The physical disconnect from the victim gives the bully the false sense of freedom to say whatever they want."   p. 322

Anne Rice agrees

From the Guardian:

Anne Rice has tackled vampires, werewolves and witches in her fiction, but now the bestselling novelist is taking on a real-life enemy: the anonymous "anti-author gangsters" who attack and threaten writers online.

The Interview with the Vampire author is a signatory to a new petition, which is rapidly gathering steam, calling on Amazon to remove anonymity from its reviewers in order to prevent the "bullying and harassment" it says is rife on the site. "They've worked their way into the Amazon system as parasites, posting largely under pseudonyms, lecturing, bullying, seeking to discipline authors whom they see as their special prey," Rice told the Guardian. "They're all about power. They clearly organise, use multiple identities and brag about their ability to down vote an author's works if the author doesn't 'behave' as they dictate."

If you're of similar mind, please do as I just did — sign the petition.

You can read the full text of Anne Rice's views here.

— jules
 

Living example

Here's what I'm talking about; I came across it last night.

The subject? Whether a clever Honda ad did or did not run during the Super Bowl.

my bad what i meant to say was it did show on air but only once during the super bowl and go fuck your self thats why you are rated thumbs down bitch. its ok now you can cry. and if you reply this you prove that your the most dummest fucker in the world because...1.u have wasted 10secs of your life.2.reread it again cause you dont under stand that u wasted 10 sec of your life and 3. cause i am only jokeing

dimejitunji 

So, my question: Would 'dimejitunji' have written this kind of response to someone he'd never met if he'd had to sign his name? If he'd had to OwnUpDude?

And would the world be a little bit brighter if he'd written something more civilized?

jules

As usual, Seth Godin

sums it up most succinctly.

Here's the way crims put it, also succinct:

If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

They both mean the same —Own Up, Dude.

Put your name on it

From one of the clearest thinkers I know, Seth Godin of Seth's Blog:

Put your name on it

Is there a simpler way to improve quality and responsiveness?

If you can't sign it, don't ship it.

Am I an exception?

This just in from Allen of New Zealand. He gave me hi full name and, as you'll see, his reason for wanting anonymity... Whatcha' think?

As one who regularly comments on blogs etc in my private life, but who must be perceived as neutral in my professional life, I generally use a pseudonym to make my comments.  I would not be able to make such contributions if I was forced to disclose my true identity.    Would Jules have me silenced?

However, anonymity must never be used as a shield to enable abuse, and irrespective of my pseudonym or my true name I would expect to be curtailed if I exercised such abuse.

Allan

Koha. Merci. Thanks.

Koha. Merci. Thanks.

First and foremost to Jim Mora and his Radio New Zealand off-siders David Allen and Susan Baldacci.

Then to those who helped shape this document: Effin Older, Amber older, Bob Bone, Dave Fonda, Roger Hall, Durant Imboden and John Raeburn.