The anonymity of Vision 2020

[Don Coombs <dcoombs@uidaho.edu>]

On Wed, 16 Feb 2000, JS M wrote:

> 
> ... anonymity is one of the attractions of the internet.  I always 
> respond personally to questions directed to me.  You'll notice that on this 
> listserve many city and county officials and elected folks are listening, 
> but they don't PARTICIPATE.  I'm sure it's because they think that by 
> participating they will be asked to represent some official position.  
> There's a difference between a public and private life, but many government 
> officials and electeds feel the line is too thin for comfort.  Sure, they 
> may not participate because they're WEAK, but my point is that some want the 
> anonymity of the listserve to continue.  Always remember, someone is 
> listening...
> jm

I wasn't aware that anonymity was part of the attraction of Vison2020. I
wasn't even aware that anonymity was a choice --

I thought there was established policy from a year or so ago that postings
should be signed with a person's full name, not just initials.

I have no problem with government officials or anybody else just reading
the posts without participating themselves.

But if you're going to post, you need to take responsibility for the
content of the post. (I'm not describing how it IS on the Internet in
general, I'm describing how it should be on Vision 2020.) If we're going
to drift away from that policy of taking responsibility, we'll drift away
from fairness and consideration and the result will be people drifing away
from Vision 2020 in a big way.

Don Coombs