In Reply to: Update to our Rules & Guidelines posted by Coordinator on July 15, 2004 at 20:29:09:
When I first came thundering into the ex-COG world it was mainly from the BBS community that had crumbled and faded away in the shadow of the new Internet that had recently been made available to the general public.
Back then, I ran one of the largest BBS's on the west coast. We were very protective of our equipment, and we wouldn't let anyone use it unless we knew who they were. In order to get access to my system, someone had to mail me a self addressed stamped envelope, and I would mail it back to them with a full access password. Later on, I started taking paid subscriptions, so I would get a credit card or check from the person.
Everyone posted under their legal first and last names. There was no provision for "handles", or and no way to have multiple accounts and names.
We still had some terrible fights over things like politics and religion, but people knew that they were responsible for what they wrote. If someone got too wild, it was very easy to make them go away.
When I started working with Lolo's and later with NDN, I was really amazed at the level of abuse there was as far as people using muliple names. We had people carrying on entire conversations with themselves, sometimes taking both pro and con positions.
But, mostly, it was people who would act as a one man gang against an individual, using several different names to create an illusion that there was a pack of folks out there that thought some poor unsuspecting user was wrong, going to Hell, or whatever.
It really is very abusive, and it is the kind of thing that drives people away.
I think this strikes a good balance between the real need for anonymous access in this kind of community, while attempting to curb some of the abuse.