14 DAY TRIAL // The Montana Standard, a US-based publication and online news portal, has decided to replace all the usernames in the newspaper's comments section with the users' real names.
The decision was made after the site's employees got tired of moderating thousands of mean-spirited comments and personal attacks.
Since users are required to register an account before posting comments, and during the account's creation, they have to enter their real name, the Montana Standard has decided to retroactively replace all usernames with the users' real names.
The change will be made starting January 1, 2016, and the newspaper will allow users who might regret some of their opinions to send an email and request the staff to delete their comments. The email address is [email protected], and users have until December 26, 2015, to send their request.
Users are displeased, new policy does not guarantee high-quality comments
While third-party observers like us may see and understand the reasons behind this policy change, the newspaper's commenters did not, many showing their displeasure at the paper's decision to unmask them retroactively.
Of course, many were angry that some of their mean comments would be associated with their names, but others were afraid because of comments they made under the presumption of anonymity. Some users argued that some of the comments on the site did not contain hateful speech, but offered insider information on topics where anonymity was crucial.
Moreover, providing only four weeks of notice may not be enough for some users, who may not visit the site during this interval and may not be aware of new commenting policy change. A better solution would have been to personally email each of the site's users.
Additionally, the new policy of replacing usernames with real names in comments is not troll-proof either, since many users can simply change their name and use a fake one instead.