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San Luis Obispo Tribune commenters required to use Facebook

September 15, 2013

tribuneThe San Luis Obispo Tribune began requiring commenters to belong to Facebook in order to comment on stories on Sunday.

This weekend, several McClatchy papers began requiring commenters to have a Facebook account in an attempt to improve the tone of their reader’s comments. While Facebook does not verify account holders, McClatchy reports that more people use their real names when joining Facebook.

Several papers such as the Chicago Tribune and the Fresno Bee require that their readers have Facebook accounts while the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times allow readers to register through the newspapers’ websites. Papers that require members to post through Facebook generally have substantially fewer comments.

 


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This whole anonymous blogging stuff really has created problems, so I don’t blame The Tribune for trying to get a handle on it. But stooping to aligning with Facebook and making participation with Facebook a requirement is tyrannical and pathetic…and will not stop some people from gaming the system and creating false identities nevertheless.


If CalCoastNews stopped allowing anonymous posting, the site would likely wither. It’s the anonymous commenting that a big part of this site’s attraction, more so than the “news” articles in many cases.


In any case, in general, there really is too much very mean commenting and bullying by anonymous and non-anonymous commentators on all of these sites.


We all have to grow up.


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How about we all post within the rules of each message board at which we post and, if you don’t care for the way a person posts, then just avoid their posts?


When it comes to free speech, one of the worst mind-fracks that can occur is when someone believes they have to censor themselves in order to have their opinions heard/read.


Our government is already jack-boot-thugging over our constitutional rights. Do we really have to play the suck-up toady and do their dirty deeds for them?


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From this message board, on what not to post: 1. Vulgar, obscene, offensive, threatening or harassing language;


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You don’t have to be yourself on Facebook, so it’s hard to see what the T accomplishes by this clumsy move. In fact, their web-posted FAQ on the change states you can use a fake picture.


http://www.sanluisobispo.com/faq/#commenting


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They just don’t want Adam Hill, Dee Torres and their handlers griping at them for the negative press that results from the articles published about Torres’ alleged theft from CAPSLO’s homeless services’ family clients.


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hijinks says: “You don’t have to be yourself on Facebook”


Not really, the trib has no say over facebooks TOS, they just want you to feel good about it.

What facebook allows IDK.


Also the irony of Trib/McClatchy owning part of Topix, yet Sandra wanting “nicer” comments with facebook.


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Mary is correct about why people need to remain anonymous. Here is an example of what happens to people who use their real names. Fortunately for Mary, she uses a moniker but it could have been her real name if it had been known. She was already attacked on Topix last week. I don’t think she knows this yet, judging by her posts but here it is. I found it when I googled Karen Velie!


“Mary Malone, imposter, liar and fraud artists BEWARE”

http://www.topix.net/forum/slo/TAE3VAS0I5N15T5NA


It’s one thing to attack public figures but private individuals with jobs in the private sector don’t need these sort of attacks. It can greatly affect ones reputation as co-workers and bosses have no idea that it’s political etc.


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I am convinced that Mary is actually a dude, part of the deep hiding place that is anonymty


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Why do you think I am a “dude”? Because I can’t be made to meekly cower to criticism over my aggressive posting style?


Not all mothers raised their daughters to be doormats. Some of us were actually raised to believe we had the same rights as men, and that includes the right to be heard and to speak our minds in the manner in which we wish to be heard.


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Mary, if you really believed what you just posted, you would be using your real name. But don’t worry, you are loved by God and all that frequent this site


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No, “the guy paso,” if YOU believed what you posted, you would be using YOUR real name. Hypocrite.


So why do you believe Mary Malone is not my name? Because some tool on Topix said so? LOL, Amway salesmen must just LOVE seeing you come down the street.


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That is her real name. She used to be an ER nurse at Twin Cities Hospital.


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Excuse me while I take a bow. This is not the first time I have been “accused” of being Karen Velie. While I find it highly flattering, I am sure Velie is cringing under the table about it.


I don’t know why anyone would question my name.


Out of choice, I now have a small footprint on the internet, so there isn’t much to find.


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I don’t own a facebook account. Facebook is too intrusive and while it certainly is popular, many people that I know don’t like it or own an account. Looks like I won’t be posting at the Trib anymore.


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And just like that, the tribunes website just got smarter.


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And smaller.


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I do believe that my recent subscription to the Tribune will be the shortest subscription to a publication I’ve ever had.


For those who use their real names on Facebook, having posts from the a local publication, like the Tribune, also show up on your own account is just confusing and distracting to others who may not even know there is a “San Luis Obispo.”


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Just cancelled my subscription.


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If ever there was a time to BE anonymous, as much as one possibly could, it is now.


I know it’s been, like, forever… but wasn’t there something in the news recently about privacy? NSA – or No Such Agency, spying, collecting data, etc.?


I understand this problem is about 100x worse under Obama than all other administrations (mainly for the tech to do it), therefore it is ignored in the hopes that it will go away (like all his other scandals), but there was SOMETHING about privacy once or twice…


Maybe if we should listen to that NAZI, Dianne Feinstein when commenting on the SHEILD LAW to “protect” authorized reporters (emphasis mine) when she said (quote inside snipet):

“Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) insisted on limiting the legal protection to “real reporters” and not, she said, a 17-year-old with his own website.


“I can’t support it if everyone who has a blog has a special privilege … or if Edward Snowden were to sit down and write this stuff, he would have a privilege. I’m not going to go there,” she said.


Feinstein introduced an amendment that defines a “covered journalist” as someone who gathers and reports news for “an entity or service that disseminates news and information.” The definition includes freelancers, part-timers and student journalists, and it permits a judge to go further and extend the protections to any “legitimate news-gathering activities.”


Matt Drudge had some choice comments for Feinstein via his twitter…


So here we are, all of a sudden desiring that comments be publicly attached to private citizens AND wanting “real journalists” to be protected. Hey, Karen, you think you’ll qualify as a “real journalist” to these people? We OK with the GOVERNMENT deciding who and what a REAL JOURNALIST is? Should we be OK with the government deciding that anonymous comments are also not desirable?


Does anyone recognize their Country still? Hope you enjoy this Change people voted for.


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Congrats to the Tribune and other McClatchy papers for doing the right thing. Now the burden falls on Karen to follow suit and lower the toxic tone of this community by making people put their names to their opinions. If you’re not willing to put your name to your opinion, it’s likely not one worth hearing. Karen has the ethical and moral obligation to try and curb the mean-spirited nature of many of the comments made on this site by people who would never voice the hate otherwise. Let’s see if Karen has the common sense to do this. Hope so!


OK, Anonymice — let ‘er rip!


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“If you’re not willing to put your name to your opinion, it’s likely not one worth hearing.”


That’s why you post as “Dave” which may or may not be a real name, but in no case tells us who you are? Hmn.


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Dave’s not here, man.


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“If you’re not willing to put your name to your opinion, it’s likely not one worth hearing.”


Then why are you still posting “anonymously”?


“the ethical and moral obligation” to use facebook? What do you own stock or something?


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Honestly, Dave, if you and your colleagues were experiencing heartwrewnching attrocities within your organization for years on end and had no higher authority to turn to file grievance, would you identify yourself in a blog with your real name, particularly if you risked getting sued?


Anonyminity allows for free expression, free from fear. Thanks to CCN, not only were grievances exposed, but actions were taken.


Thank you CCN, once again.


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News flash….some people dont use facebook because they could care less what anybody and everybody did that day or week or year, and still prefer to talk to another person on the phone or face to face whom is family or friend. What a concept eh ;)


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No Dave, we live in such a partisan country where many will attack you for having an opinion that they view as wrong. Those attacks can harm family, friends and business. So the right to free speech without negative repercussions is why we need to post anonymously! Sure some people make mean often stupid comments because they are anonymous, but that is a small price for freedom of speech. Personally I run a small business, if some of my customers disagreed with my comments they would take their business elsewhere, I cannot afford to take that risk. And my employees do not want me to take that risk either.


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Yes, by all means, put all of CCN’s outspoken supporters at risk of the kind of vindictive Topix BS Karen Velie has had to endure.


Some posters prefer to use their real names. Others, for whatever reasons, don’t. This is a common practice across the vast numbers of internet message boards. So why do you advocate something different for posters that frequent the Trib’s message boards?


Velie’s vindictive enemies posted on Topix, after the recent death of Velie’s daughter, that Velie had killed her. That’s how ugly the malignant dwarf’s tools have become.


I would bet most of CCN’s loyal supporters are not public personalities. Yet you advocate CCN’s supporters opening themselves up to the harassment and bullying Velie has had to endure?


Here’s a prediction…CCN would no longer have the kind of vocal public support it now enjoys if it meant the malignant dwarf’s goon squad was targeting them, which they would do once they obtained the “real” names of CCN’s supporters.


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Seems to me,Dave, that you had a guy hosting your radio show who went by the moniker of “Santa Maria Bill” instead of hs real name, Will Powers. Was he a mouse.


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Dave Congalton continually allows numerous people to be anonymous in-studio guests on his radio show. He never calls them “mice” to their faces. Dave Congalton doesn’t seem to mind people using pseudonyms, as long as they are willing to abide by the rules of his show and kiss his butt enough. If and when they stop kissing his rear end, boom, they are GONE.


Dave Congalton is simply not consistent with his viewpoints. He goes with whatever serves himself best for any particular moment. Here is a guy who has been given writing credit for a film called “Authors Anonymous”. And considering the amount of off-script, improvisation by the actors in the film, the title seems appropriate. But in any case, Dave certainly has plenty of reason to be pondering such issues, even if he is not particularly consistent or rational about his view points.


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No Santa Maria Bill “was” a professional who had an affair with one of his married patients and now is left with standing at Costco spouting about this or that. Too bad they took away his bull horn it actually made me smile to hear him while getting gas, now you can only hear him when you drive by. His only joy now is the hope somebody actually tries to have a discussion with him and crosses some line he has set so he can call the police, but something tells me they are really tired of him.


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Dave Congalton allowed “Santa Maria Bill” to use a pseudonym and was a promoted, regular guest on Congalton’s show. The general public had no idea who he “really” was. But now that I think about it, I don’t know if Dave allowed this for Bill’s protection or his own.


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Sorry Dave, but I don’t need to throw my weight around and receive personal recognition and adulation by using my “real” name on this website.


Also, some of us value our privacy, and unlike you, do not make a living based on name recognition and public exposure.


Some of us, based on bad experiences, no longer wish to use our “real” names because of malicious treatment of ourselves and our loved ones by some people who use this site but don’t agree with our viewpoints.


I’m serious when I say that if you had guts, you would stop throwing your weight and name around and opost anonymously and let your comments stand on their own rather than being propped up by the power you wield (and often abuse) in your roll as a local radio show host.


Bascially, Dave, I t hink you are simply bugged because people who you can’t identify who continually make opostings that call you out on so much of the BS you shovel day in and day out.


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Dave, please review your past postings on this site and notice how rarely, if ever, you defend your viewpoints based on merit, but rather you typically choose to attack your critics personally, insulting them for not identifying themselves, calling them “mice” or “cowards” or other vacuous insults that deflect from the issue at hand.


The validity of a criticism does not chance in the least based on whether or not you can identify the person who brought the criticism. Dave, if your viewpoints were defensible on their own merits, you wouldn’t obsess over trying to identify and out your critics.


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Dave, you have to be kidding me. Google your own name and tell me that we should all be subjected to the attacks that you have been subjected to, or maybe your one of those people who subscribe to, “the more the better” when it comes to personal attacks and having your family viciously slandered to boot. There is no limit to what those nut cases out there will post on the internet about someone if they don’t like an “OPINION”


You’re a public figure and people know where it’s coming from, not so with the private citizen. It does 10X the damage to a private person.


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Dave, why don’t you start your own message board? Then you can run it as you see fit.


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Sorry Dave you’re wrong on this one. We live in an extremely divided but small community. Some of us are business owners. There are too many people these days that boycott first and asks questions later. You try opening a store in MB or AG and go outside everyday and stand on an apple box and speak your mind. When you have done that then we can talk. Until that time I will stand on the side of Anonymices and say to Karen…keep things like they are please.


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also…Dave I know you give your opinion everyday on your radio show and it takes guts but you get paid for this. So on second thought…Karen can pay us for our opinions and I’m sure we would all be happy to log on with our real names. lol


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Excellent Point, Rambunctious!


Congalton may even have work-related insurance that covers him for repercussions.


In any case, Dave Congalton is way out of line and terribly rude to continue denigrating people who use nom de plumes for blogging. He has the never to call us all “COWARDS”. And yet, he promotes anonymous behavior on his radio show and only seems to call people out who don’t agree with him.


Dave Congalton owed the majority of folks who have ever posted on CalCoastNews a HUGE apology. But you know what, I don’t know if Congalton has EVER admitted in public he was wrong about anything he has said on his show or published.


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Someone created a name on Topix, “Julie Thacker,” from which they make rude comments about Julie.


So, just because you see the name “Julie Thacker,” does that mean you believe the real Julie Thacker is making those posts?


I could go over to a message board and make up a screen name “Dave Congalton.” Would my posts then have more credibility and would that mean my opinions are actually Dave Congalton’s opinions?


I really don’t think you thought this out.


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Not too worried about it.


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The “tone of the readers’ comments” at their website already improved when their regular troll ‘top’ vanished.


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Hum, maybe my “Bobfrom Sanluis” account will work there, we’ll see …


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