Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Site News: 'Anonymous' No Longer Lives Here..For Now!

After much consideration on this matter, I have decided to try and get rid of the numerous "anonymous" postings that frequent this blog.

I know that many of you who comment are people that are in the business but feel there could be a backlash against you if you were to put your names behind these comments. I understand that and respect that. That is why I have fought against this for so long, because many of those comments still have been informative and constructive in their criticism.

However, there are too many people who give cowardly, insulting comments and don't have the guts to put their names behind what they say. They write too many insults about the fighters, promoters, commissioners, etc. and they feel they can get away with it because they're too cowardly to put a name behind it. Because of this, I want to see if taking off the anonymous label will help.

Those of you who want to give comments and stay with me on this journey, I thank you. Those of you who think that because the anonymous label has been taken away you can't stay with us, you weren't the true fans we were looking for anyway!

We'll try this for awhile and see how it works!

19 comments:

Linda "Great Shot" Siadys said...

WHOOOHOOO!!!
Good job Gary!
Hope that measure can be successful in weeding out the drive by comments.

squarering said...

I think it is a good move Gary. I hope others do as well. I like the site enough to respect it. It will be interesting.

BigQ said...

I agree. Hopefully people will continue to post comments. This is a great outlet for DC area boxing fans.

Anonymous said...

Very cool.

boxbible said...

I liked that "anonymous" guy...

Brad Dudley said...

Thats great

Anonymous said...

What if your name really is anonymous, UHH? What if? That does not allow me the oppurtunity to post my opinion

ACW said...

Test.

DC Boxing said...

I think this is a great idea also, Gary.

RichardMcCombs said...

Gary I am with you all the way.

chin from the honeycomb gym said...

most of us are adults here. why are we so sensitive..... anonymous comments offer very often uninhibited comments that can be insightful and enlightening as well. we can always go to the next comments if we find to hard for our eyes. but, hey its your blog... do with it as you will.

Linda "Great Shot" Siadys said...

Chin,

There have been many uninhibited, insightful and enlightening comments made by people that stand behind them. I don't think it's that people are too sensitive, the issue was that the majority of the anonymous comments tended to be downright combative and nasty.
If a person is too inhibited to make a comment on a public blog, without anyone knowing who they are, then it shouldn't be made. Especially in this blog, because much of the community that reads/post it are the fibers of the boxing community who often put a lot on the line.
Standing behind your name just keeps the playing field clean and raises the bar.

chin from the honeycomb gym said...

greetings Linda
i see your comments frequently on the boxing along the beltway
site. It is nice that you are such an active and enthusiastic
participator. I appreciate you comments and it is clear that your presence is a
great benefit to all of us who have the pleasure of checking them out.
But, let me say being combative can be interesting and add flavor to a
boring exchange and some of these comments beg a combative response. You
know this web site gives the little man and little women out here a
much needed voice. We get a chance to express our selves uninhibitedly
and sometimes you get it raw. Boxing is a sport where in most of the
athletes come from humble origins and we very often communicate in, how
shall I say it, in colorful terms. I don't think our words should be
straight jacketed by the overly sensitive and easily offended folks. I
actually don't like that our host digital Williams blasts folks calling
them cowards and things. But I can tolerate it. Anyway Linda, I
think you are great and thank you for taking the time to drop me your
thoughts.

Linda "Great Shot" Siadys said...

Chin,

I get what you mean, and do agree to a point. Nothing wrong with RAW or colorful. I just think too many times the comments are just outright unprovoked character bashing and don't really add anything of interest.
I think if someone on here said Chin is a so and so, and did this and that, that Chin deserves the poster to have the integrity to stand behind their statement, but that's just my opinion.

skinnyscott said...

Back again. I agree with Chin and Linda as well. Anonymous posters can be extremely useful providing information and constructive opinions. However, many times people misuse anonymous postings to make personal attacks. Let's see how this approach works for a few months and allow Gary to experiment. My wife has been very sick so I haven't been as active blogging. Looks like I'm coming back at the right time with so much activity. I'd love to see William Joppy win that title.

All hail Digital!

Gary Digital Williams said...

Personally, Mr. Chin, I wish I didn't have to call them cowards. Unfortunately, I think anyone who can say some things that are just insulting, and then doesn't have the guts to put their name behind that insult is indeed a coward.

Again, I understand that there are those who can't give their names because they are too inside the business here. But they are overshadowed by the ones who use this forum to give insulting and otherwise silly comments.

Also, hope your wife is feeling better, SkinnyScott.

boxbible said...

Let the cowards be cowards... but let's not let their negative attitude change the way we can blog here.

So far, when one of these imbeciles has made an insulting or provocative comment, that blogger has usually been humbled by a deluge of counter-attacks, yours truly included.

The place has been self-policing quite nicely, in my opinion, and I don't think we need to take any draconian measures just to satisfy the one or two overly-sensitive and easily-offended individuals... or those that annoint themselves as our guardians of so-called decency...

chin from the honeycomb gym said...

Teach brother teach
that is a great explaination freedom of expression.

Anonymous said...

I'm not one who blogs here much but I do enjoy reading the various opinions stated here, whether I agree with them or not.
I do think that it is cowardly and disrespectful to fraudulently attribute statements to people or to make character statements and not be man or woman enough to own up to them.
I don't think it's draconian or a matter of people being overly sensitive. I think as people who love boxing we should elevate the level discussion among each other and not allow 'poison' to spread within an otherwise positive community.
Just my opinion.