Issue: Disrespectful post comments

I've recieved some in the past (for example, my most recent one), and I'm sure that I'm not the only one.

It appears that the anonimity of post comments encourages members to disrespect other members without being identified as the commenter.

Respectful, constructive criticism of posts that you disagree with or feel are wrong is great, but putting down other members for differences of opinion or for making posts that you feel are otherwise no constructive is not, IMO.

Is this a PSA? Or do you want something to be done about it?

I think you're best off ignoring it; Not much can be done apart from telling people to be respectful to other members, which expected anyway.

^ That, and there really shouldn't be a problem because you can report them and they'll be dealt with accordingly. I don't see what the problem is, this is not something new. If you just report it then everything's fine right because you don't know who it is anyway?

Hiroshi Sotomura said:

I'll take this time to point out that any admin is able to check any post comments sent to other users. Like other occasions though, don't expect us to deal with comments that you simply disagree with. Appropriate infractions will be issued for anybody who sends demeaning, insulting comments.

The anonymity is for people to constructively criticise or make a small comment on without being identified.

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But what's the benefit of that? If you wanted to criticize a post then just reply to it in the thread and if it's a small comment then just leave your name in the comment to let them know who did it. It seems that the cons of the anonymity of the system outweigh the pros in that people are able to make malicious post comments without the person who they sent them to knowing who made them. If you don't have the balls to make a comment to someone's face then you shouldn't be making the comment at all.

Karpman said:

But what's the benefit of that? If you wanted to criticize a post then just reply to it in the thread and if it's a small comment then just leave your name in the comment to let them know who did it. It seems that the cons of the anonymity of the system outweigh the pros in that people are able to make malicious post comments without the person who they sent them to knowing who made them. If you don't have the balls to make a comment to someone's face then you shouldn't be making the comment at all.

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If you want to make comments and sign them, that's fine and that option is available to you manually. But some people (myself included) do not like comments to be signed.

Honestly, we RARELY get reports of people abusing the post comments system. When we do, we look into it asap. Half the time, the complaints are about perfectly valid comments that simply offer criticism rather than actual insults. But when people do come with legitimate complaints, we take them seriously--we delete the offending comments and warn/infract the person who left them.

I don't really feel that anonymity is that big of a problem and insulting comments don't happen enough (or aren't reported enough) to really make me want to take it away.

Mew~ said:

I generally just think Post Comments shouldn't even be anonymous, this isn't the first time someone has complained about abuse over it. They serve a good purpose, and when used correctly it would be nice to reply to whoever has sent you one too.

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/two cents

Post comments aren't used enough to warrant any change to them and it is very rare, from what I have seen, for 'abuse' to be sent to someone.​

I can remember a thread like this from a month or two ago. Anyway I think one of the main problems with this is what Lightning said about them not being reported enough. People always make threads about them trying to get them identifiable while you can just report them and be over with it.
Having the poster identified would cause so much more trouble than having them anonymous, first of all it would discourage people to give their honest opinion because we all know that is scary because we are scared of being judged or criticized (so it takes away the purpose completely), and second, when someone /does/ dare to give their opinion there's the possibility of it just creating an argument with the receiver because they couldn't take it well.

Zet said:

Question: Why do you care so much about what people think about you on the internet?

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Some people aren't as thick skinned as others. It is understandable for people to get upset if they are receiving hate/abuse from others; only natural for people to get upset.
So it is a valid to bring it up if someone has a problem with it, but going back to my original point, I don't see or hear much abuse at all.​

I'm not trying to call-out any specific members, but this problem has been on-going for me, and from the looks of some of the replies to this thread, I'm not the only one. I made this thread to draw attention to the problem in general, not just the comments that I've been receiving.

I understand if the staff wants to keep them anonymous, but perhaps adding a report button next to post comments would help. Staff would still be the ones to judge whether the report has merit or not.