Gawker lets us name ourselves again - the return of screen names with numbers (but more importantly: anonymity) Gawker has implemented a new comment system that doesn’t ask you to link your Facebook, LinkedIn, Airbnb and Pinterest profiles before you comment. You can now pretend it’s 2004, and you’re ready for heated discussions about whatever it was you were into then. Here’s how they’ll keep it civil: Each contributor — whether anonymous or not — will now be given the power to moderate the conversation they spark. Interesting questions might warrant a response; corroborating responses can be accepted; and harassers can be dismissed. Give the source the ability to tell us what they know, then let the reader determine whether they’ve satisfied the critics, just as one would in judging a panel debate or a courtroom cross-examination. And here’s how it’s worked today — not too bad. But Gawker isn’t the only site doing this, and the other one isn’t just Reddit. 4chan  founder Christopher Poole has long claimed that his site, which, among other descriptions, has been called “[the] web’s most bewildering — and influential — subculture,” thrives on its users’ anonymity. Think content, not creator.

Gawker lets us name ourselves again - the return of screen names with numbers (but more importantly: anonymity)

Gawker has implemented a new comment system that doesn’t ask you to link your Facebook, LinkedIn, Airbnb and Pinterest profiles before you comment. You can now pretend it’s 2004, and you’re ready for heated discussions about whatever it was you were into then.

Here’s how they’ll keep it civil:

Each contributor — whether anonymous or not — will now be given the power to moderate the conversation they spark. Interesting questions might warrant a response; corroborating responses can be accepted; and harassers can be dismissed. Give the source the ability to tell us what they know, then let the reader determine whether they’ve satisfied the critics, just as one would in judging a panel debate or a courtroom cross-examination.

And here’s how it’s worked today — not too bad.

But Gawker isn’t the only site doing this, and the other one isn’t just Reddit. 4chan  founder Christopher Poole has long claimed that his site, which, among other descriptions, has been called “[the] web’s most bewildering — and influential — subculture,” thrives on its users’ anonymity. Think content, not creator.

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