Why should any company, on the Internet or elsewhere, have the right or obligation to allow people to do actionable things under the cloak of anonymity? If an anonymous poster here libels or slanders you in a post, do you believe you should not have the right to pursue them in court?
I believe in anonymity because I have seen people's lives turned upside down when their identities are revealed. Harassing calls to their employer, to their family, etc. And because anonymity is the premise of SI. SI instituted this premise, not me.
And you are missing the point. I'm not saying that you can't be sued for your actions here, I'm saying that unless a suit has merit and a court reviews it and orders SI to turn over the identity of a poster here, it should not be so easy to discover a poster's true identity. You ought to be able to challenge that person's investigation to see whether it has merit.
And you are pretty anonymous yourself. Dale Baker doesn't tell me whether you are a man or woman, where you live, how old you are, what you do for a living, etc. (I haven't checked your profile to see if it's there). THere could be hundreds of Dale Baker's out there. But do you really want some (or all) of the posters here to know where you live? I'm sure you can think of a few who you would not want to know. And I think that's especially important for the women here (call me sexist if you like, but violence against women does exist, and I don't know if the posters here are capable of such things or not, but I'd rather not chance it).
I would think you would want some control over the personal information you give to SI when a private individual wants to know who you are and where you live without wanting you to know about it first. |
