The Internet has been poisoned by a bunch of cowards.
This modern marvel of technology that lets the masses shares views, opinions and ideas in a way never before possible is also a tool for petty individuals to spew all manner of defamatory, critical tripe.
COLUMN: Hiding behind a cloak of anonymity
There are times when anonymity is acceptable (police tip lines or innocuous message board comments come to mind), but far too many people are hiding behind a cloak of anonymity in order to perpetrate malicious, personal attacks.
Take the recent Ashley Payne lawsuit. Assuming the school system is telling the truth, they now know the identity of the parent behind the anonymous email complaining about Payne's Facebook activity. However, it is highly unlikely that they knew this person's identity at the moment they confronted Ms. Payne.
The email was sent to Superintendent Saunders at 2:26 on the morning of August 27. Saunders forwarded the email to Apalachee High School principal David McGee at 7:06 that same morning. A short while later, Payne was gone.
While it is true that Payne did resign, she did so because school officials decided to confront her with an anonymous email before even attempting to substantiate the complaint.
This so-called “concerned parent” who believed Payne’s behavior was “intolerable” wrote that she wished to remain anonymous “for the sake of my daughter.” That is bull.
She wished to remain anonymous because she was either lying about being a “concerned parent” or she lacked the strength of conviction to publicly say that she believed Payne had truly done something wrong.
This “concerned parent” is far from alone. Local message boards and blogs are absolutely rife with libelous and hateful comments.
While these people would not dare voice these comments and accusations in person, they are more than willing to attack both private and public individuals online in the most despicable manner.
These people are the worst kind of joke.
I do not know which is more laughable: the fact that these anonymous posters believe they cannot be tracked and identified or the fact that they seem to think a comment or email signed “anonymous” deserves any credence whatsoever.
These people need a serious wake-up call.
There is no such thing as anonymity on the web. Once you cross certain lines, you can expect that the target of your vitriol may come looking for you. And guess what? You can be found.
Corporations have successfully sued anonymous bloggers for posting defamatory information on the web. An individual could do the same.
Defamation is not protected speech, yet there are plenty of “anonymous” people out there who apparently think it is.
I am grateful for those bloggers and message board commentators willing to sign their name and publicly stand by their comments. As someone who has to sign her name to her opinion every week, I respect your courage. I also appreciate those posters who do not abuse their anonymity and choose to participate in a civil public debate.
As for all the other people hiding behind an anonymous screen name or email address, if you cannot write anything nice, maybe you should not write anything at all.
Take the recent Ashley Payne lawsuit. Assuming the school system is telling the truth, they now know the identity of the parent behind the anonymous email complaining about Payne's Facebook activity. However, it is highly unlikely that they knew this person's identity at the moment they confronted Ms. Payne.
The email was sent to Superintendent Saunders at 2:26 on the morning of August 27. Saunders forwarded the email to Apalachee High School principal David McGee at 7:06 that same morning. A short while later, Payne was gone.
While it is true that Payne did resign, she did so because school officials decided to confront her with an anonymous email before even attempting to substantiate the complaint.
This so-called “concerned parent” who believed Payne’s behavior was “intolerable” wrote that she wished to remain anonymous “for the sake of my daughter.” That is bull.
She wished to remain anonymous because she was either lying about being a “concerned parent” or she lacked the strength of conviction to publicly say that she believed Payne had truly done something wrong.
This “concerned parent” is far from alone. Local message boards and blogs are absolutely rife with libelous and hateful comments.
While these people would not dare voice these comments and accusations in person, they are more than willing to attack both private and public individuals online in the most despicable manner.
These people are the worst kind of joke.
I do not know which is more laughable: the fact that these anonymous posters believe they cannot be tracked and identified or the fact that they seem to think a comment or email signed “anonymous” deserves any credence whatsoever.
These people need a serious wake-up call.
There is no such thing as anonymity on the web. Once you cross certain lines, you can expect that the target of your vitriol may come looking for you. And guess what? You can be found.
Corporations have successfully sued anonymous bloggers for posting defamatory information on the web. An individual could do the same.
Defamation is not protected speech, yet there are plenty of “anonymous” people out there who apparently think it is.
I am grateful for those bloggers and message board commentators willing to sign their name and publicly stand by their comments. As someone who has to sign her name to her opinion every week, I respect your courage. I also appreciate those posters who do not abuse their anonymity and choose to participate in a civil public debate.
As for all the other people hiding behind an anonymous screen name or email address, if you cannot write anything nice, maybe you should not write anything at all.
Signing my name (in the past) to some unpopular views has made me the target of a few of Barrow County's finest (sic) - Now, I almost never use my name. I would love to be able to sign my name - I just don't need any more stalkers!
People writing editorials should live by that same advice.
This editorial started out about the teacher who has been in the news a lot of late, but the tone certainly seems to have changed near the end.
Apparently the author is upset about messages posted anonymously concerning something written on this website in the past.
Veiled threats to track down and sue people who have posted anonymously does not make a very flattering image, it is a bad reflection upon the author and the newspaper.
Kristi, if you are going to post editorials on a website that allows anonymous posting, you should expect messages to be posted that you are not going to like, a "thin skin" is not going to serve you well in this circumstance.
Not to be flipant, but as the old saying goes "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen".
The intent of the editorial seems to have been nothing more than an attempt to intimidate and threaten, and as such it is baiting someone to respond in the same fashion.
I have little respect for people who resort to such tactics, regardless of using their real name or if they post anonymously.
Let me make a few points PERFECTLY CLEAR for those of you who haven't thought it through: First, the people who run this website (namely the owners of mainstreetnews.com) have intentionally allowed people to post comments anonymously. Second, the people who run this website CONTROL WHAT IS ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO APPEAR on the website (via "moderation"). Third, the people who run this website control ALL CONTENT THAT APPEARS here, including articles, ads, editorials AND comments.
If they don't like the comments posted here, THEY HAVE TOTAL CONTROL to keep them from ever appearing on the website! They don't even HAVE to allow messages to BE posted.
That being true, if they have a problem with anonymous postings, it is in poor taste and bad judgement to not only allow posts to be entered anonymously, but then to go ahead an put them up on the webpage, and THEN put up an editorial telling you that if you put something on here that they don't like, they will HUNT YOU DOWN AND BRING LEGAL CHARGES AGAINST YOU!
Now, if you can't understand those points, then I'm obviously wasting my time, and I'm not really interested in trying to explain it to you any more, so I'm done with this topic.
Have a nice day.
If a parent is willing to destroy a womans life long career then the parent better be willing to put their name out there. Period.
Even better the parent should have first contacted the teacher with any concerns they had.
I personally do not drink but regardless of that, drinking and posting it on a blog is not wrong. My goodness , even principles drink!
Maybe even our doctors, lawyers, janitors, nurses, neighbors and possibly even our ministers.
It's none of our business what people do in their down time, unless it's illegal and harmful to us.
Between all the in-fighting between government officials and now this fiasco, our city looks pretty uninviting.