[cjmb]

> I don’t have to have any opinion at all about the origin of COVID-19 … but I did, and I didn’t share it only because of the likelihood that I’d be called an idiot on social media.

This is a great justification for anon accounts -- both "primary anon-only" users and also fully- or semi- anon alts for people who have thoughts like this (which, in my opinion, ought to be every smart intellectual who doesn't make the Culture War their primary stomping ground).

Blaming a lack of courage is all well and good after the tides have turned, but courage is slim comfort when the eye of sauron turns on you. You will not feel much better for martyring yourself in service of the beliefs you hold with about-as-much-confidence as Scott expresses here -- and you'd be wise not to do so.

If you must put something down in writing that you know has the potential to cause political heat to fall on your shoulders, and it's not something core to your life's work, it's perfectly fine to either a) use a semi-anon alt or b) write in a circumspect manner. Preferably both.

Anonymity is a thin shield to hide behind, so I say "semi-anon" in support of the idea that, though the anonymity may be imperfect and the identity may be tied to your own, it can clearly be shown as a vehicle to express thoughts you are less sure of, or that you wish to distance yourself from somewhat.

I say all this will the empathy & sympathy of a fellow online writer, though with only a tiny fraction of Scott's reach...

[mherdeg]

> If you must put something down in writing that you know has the potential to cause political heat to fall on your shoulders, and it's not something core to your life's work, it's perfectly fine to either a) use a semi-anon alt or b) write in a circumspect manner. Preferably both.

Huh. This has me thinking about https://twitter.com/patio11/status/1241551327743770624 and https://www.kalzumeus.com/2020/04/21/japan-coronavirus/ and wondering how things went with that experiment.

[peakaboo]

I would say today, it's dangerous to speak uncomfortable truths. Assange is still in prison for speaking out about the NSA and looks like he will die there.

Does humanity deserve people like that to walk amongst us, or do we deserve to just get a society where we have no freedom even over our bodies?

After covid i think humanity sucks. We have easily been put into two camps, arguing with eachother. The divide and conquer strategy always works it seems. Like idiots we are not seeing the bigger picture of who profits and benefits from the change society now is transforming into.

[api]

Unfortunately the problem is that anonymous information is untrustworthy. It's fine for speaking unpopular opinions, but reporting something anonymously discredits it. This will only get worse with deep fakes. Pretty soon we will be flooded with fake video evidence of things like the Qanon claims.

[adolph]

> anonymous information is untrustworthy

Is any information trustworthy? Shouldn’t it all be verified or interrogated or seen as a particular observation at a particular point in time?

[api]

Provenance (chain of custody) is very important for any evidence. Look at the problem of fakes in archaeology and how in some cases they have skewed the entire historical narrative.

If someone is not even willing to put their name on something, there is no way to even attempt to trace it.

[systemvoltage]

> it's perfectly fine to either a) use a semi-anon alt or b) write in a circumspect manner. Preferably both.

This is the reason I use an anon account but there are still problems on HN. I apologize if I cause some trouble here on HN, but the flagging aspects of HN beyond rude/spam comments (which is what I suspect it is designed for) does a disservice to the community. My comments about inflation were flagged in March 2021 despite of being cordial and respectful. I trusted the scientists and the intellectual community, but I similarly saw some Lab Leak theory comments being flagged on HN. Vouching is a great feature, but not many people know it since it requires a couple of prerequisites - enough karma + settings to show flagged comments.

I hope we restrain ourselves to flagging behavior on HN. It also enrages people for trying to be reasonable, but contrarian, and seeing their comments disappear. Now, they're resolute and firmly dug into their contrarian views even if they were false.

So, if HN has these issues, the outside world is even worse. Try the same on Twitter and hard echo chambers form (blocking/etc). I am not engaged on Twitter or Reddit, but I occassionally observe this.

My 2 cents.

[causi]

I hope we restrain ourselves to flagging behavior on HN.

Like many informal groups, it's difficult to judge the composition of the whole when you might be seeing just the actions of the very active few. You'll notice certain topics tend to provoke flagging and downvoting wildly out of proportion with the nature of the comments, and I believe this is because those have particular user interest groups with very ahem strong opinions. You may have also noticed how your comments tend to do quite well when they're new, but somehow pick up a basket of downvotes hours after the post has fallen off the front page. I believe these to be due to a population of generic haters crawling over every post downvoting large numbers of comments.

[cutenewt]

What's the best solution for a semi-anon scenario?

The best solution I've seen are Reddit AMAs where mods verify a semi-anon's credentials (e.g. "Mod has confirmed that ___ is an employee at the NIH.")

[csee]

A service that a journalism outfit could provide. Someone like Quillette, perhaps. The author and the outlet mutually agree to what extent personal info is disclosed before publishing the controversial article.

[chana_masala]

It's like an extra powerful downvote button when someone disagrees with you.

[jacquesm]

No, it really isn't. Flags are used to mark comments that are breaking the guidelines, enough flags will kill a comment, but fewer will result in a moderator having a look at the comment, time permitting.

[chana_masala]

Haha, in theory that's true. But in practice comments are frequently flagged that the majority demographic of HN disagrees with, even breaking no guidelines. It's exactly what the OP to my comment was saying.

[jacquesm]

In practice they aren't, I should know. If your comments end up frequently flagged then you probably should read the guidelines a bit more closely.

[chana_masala]

You should know? As if you can speak for my own experience, and the experience of the above poster? We already outnumber you.