Path: math.utexas.edu!news.dell.com!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!reuter.cse.ogi.edu!netnews.nwnet.net!news.u.washington.edu!mcdaniel From: mcdaniel@u.washington.edu (McDaniel) Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,news.admin.policy Subject: Anonymous posters & Misinformation = Net pollution Date: 7 Aug 1994 08:13:45 GMT Organization: University of Washington Lines: 39 Message-ID: <32253p$220@news.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: stein4.u.washington.edu Keywords: misinformation disinformation propaganda net anon anonymous Xref: math.utexas.edu talk.politics.misc:239273 news.admin.policy:19179 The problem: Anonymous posters supplying pseudo-news reports or otherwise wasting bandwidth in groups more concerened with fact or atleast genuine concerns (such as political talk groups and sci groups.) The soultion: Limited anonymous posters to forums where accountability for what one says is of little concern (such as rec groups where applicable.) OR provide the owners of moderated groups with detailed accounts of the true identity of any anonymous poster who post to a serious newsgroup and make that procedure known to the would-be anonymous user. I attempted recently to secure the actual address of an anon poster who deliberetly spread misinformation concerning a non-existant U.S. Presidential Executive Order and a news-look-alike story dealing with proven falsehoods. Needless to say the administrator of the popular anon.penet.fi server has not been cooperative. I suggest that groups wishing to deal with issues based a little stronger in reality ban anonymous posters and encourage their posters NEVER to repeat information supplied by anonymous posters elsewhere. Some groups have already come to that same conclusion. I believe that anonymous posting is a valuable service in many forums. However, it seems that service is being abused in political and technical newsgroups. I suppose yet another solution would be to make widely known the general untrustability of anonymous posters in groups where truth and fact are paramount. But this letter should go a tiny ways towards that goal. Opinions? -McDaniel