Slashdot Mirror
Anonymous Online Publication - Fad or Trend?
An anonymous reader asks: "Across the web, stories abound regarding censorship and persecution of those who publish content online that may be offensive or conflicting toward certain governments or ideals. It almost seems that you can't attach your name to anything without being heavily scrutinized for the opinions you express. Lately though, I've begun to see several communities that promote an atmosphere of anonymity to protect their users and facilitate open communication on tough subjects. PostSecret is one of the most popular of these sites, allowing a one-way publication medium for visitors to vent their frustrations, similar to Group Hug. However, both of these sites are one-way mediums, and do not provide for anonymous interaction of users. Is anonymous blogging and publication a brief fad, or a serious, growing trend?"
"One rare example I've found that allows a truly open anonymous mode of communication (dissimilar to Slashdot's own automatic demotion of 'Anonymous Cowards'), is the Teen Angst Central, or Tangst. Operated by a group of high schoolers and hosted by Google's Blogger service, its editors publish posts made anonymously by visitors, with comments and discussion made to the site sprouting from a community bonded by anonymity. I think this concept can easily be applied to other aspects of online society, though I have yet to see many examples beyond the simple angst-driven outpouring of feelings."
Who needs anonymity? Pseudonymity ought to be enough for most people.
In the past I've been spanked over "controversial" things I've published online, so I use a pseudonym for that sort of thing.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
And why do the vast majority of these use Blogger where the 'owners' of the 'site' have no real control over the actual anonymity of the submissions?
Yes you can submit it as 'anonymous' but oops, cant do anything about server logs.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
I'd say anonymous publication is going to take over the world – at least when more people start reading at -1!
...soon to be crushed beneath the jackboots of the Department of Homeland Security.
With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
when you ISP disclose your browsing habits to the government anyway? Depending on open-wifis and the kindness of some public computers connected to the net (like in community colleges or local libraries) is sketchy at best, assuming they don't record your presence their through some other means.
but now the destination of choice for all those who can't be paranoid enough about Area 51, little green men, or the conspiracy-de-jour bent on the overthrow of every legitimate government in the world. They will grow and prosper because there are too many people out there who are totally, absolutly and utterly incapable of looking at a crack in a sidewalk without seeing a slippery slope leading straight to hell.
Ahem - saw it a while ago when it was relatively new, but there hasn't been any form of update on there for at least a year. I think you hold a valid point, but chose a sloppy example. F_T
There were comments in the /. post "On Software Patent Lawsuits Against OSS" that suggested a possibility of an underground (anonymous) OSS development model emerging if patent lawsuits made (a lot of) OSS illegal.
While responses to that comment claimed it is highly unlikely to happen (lots of OSS development done by big companies or just people unwilling to do it if they migh be sued) it is an interesting idea of a trend, which has some similarities with anonymous publishing mentioned here.
http://freesecrets.blogspot.com/
With AT&T (and most likely many other telcos) giving the NSA access to backbones for an all-you-can-eat snoopfest, server logs are irrelevant- and ultimately less useful; they can't be used by "law enforcement" as fast as a keyword hit on a sniffer on a major backbone.
I laughed when Freenet came around- I played with it, found it uselessly slow and difficult to navigate. I hope it has improved, because it may be the only anonymous publishing solution left. At least we can communicate somewhat securely via IM and emails.
Please- encourage your friends to use IM clients that support encryption, and use technology like GPG/PGP for personal or business email- if only to 'sign' messages. We need to make sure that legitimate use of encryption vastly outweighs any illegitimate uses, so that using encryption in and of itself doesn't become a crime.
Please help metamoderate.
Oh, wait...
If something is worth saying, it's worth putting your name on it.
Anyway, that's how I feel.
If you think you are right then say so. And if someone disagrees then you can find out why.
John Fenley
-John Fenley
I wish a judge would rule that the "audits" Scientologists sell to their customers were "defective" products and allow people to talk about them among themselves. Right now you mention Xenu and Scientology's lawyers issue you a smackdown.
And loser pays for court costs (which is the way it is here in Canada) to level the playing field by reducing extortive suit filing.
There's lots of ways to go about finding subscribers to your views but I believe most of them aren't needed yet in the United States. Places like Saudi Arabia and Iran should be the backdrop to serious discussion of why anonymity matters.
Shh.
think anonymity is crap. Who needs it?
Someone has combined WordPress(.com) with Tor to create totally anonymous blogs on a Tor hidden service.
...and you'll find all sorts of interesting stuff there, if you look. It might take a few hours for a new Freenet node to get integrated into the network, at which point response time will improve. Don't ever expect it to have fast interactive-surfing response times, though. Get used to opening a bunch of links in new tabs, and coming back to check them in a few minutes.
Freenet's currently got four "summer of code" projects under way, plus their full-time coder. I'm not sure I like the network changes in 0.7 but I'm trusting that the developers know the critical points better than I do.
The stuff you find on Freenet ranges from the obligatory porn and anarchy junk, to weird conspiracy theory stuff, fairly sane political expression, DeCSS and similar technical content, and lots of "flogs", the name of which is yours to absorb.
Frost is a Usenet-like messaging system that uses Freenet as its back-end message store. It also takes a while to get going; after starting your Frost instance you might want to come back in 20 minutes to get the updated boards list, add a bunch of new boards, and give it another 20 minutes to pull messages in those boards. Once your Frost is up and running, you'll start to appreciate what Freenet's really capable of. Search the available files, or participate in a few discussions. Realize that the message transport latency might be anywhere from a few minutes to many hours, so correspondence will be reminiscent of Fidonet speeds.
Seriously, you owe it to yourself to check this stuff out. Don't claim to know internet anonymity without giving Freenet a few days' effort.
Too bad /. doesn't let you fix your posts. For talking among themselves I meant talking about how the audits were "broken" citing the texts.
Shh.
Having blogged for several years, I've come to wish I'd started out and remained anonymous. While I might be willing to expose my own mistakes and foibles, the things I say can unintentionally hurt those I love. As someone who is active in my church, there are certain topics I dare not go near, and other topics I wonder if I'm just asking for trouble. The "Deb Series," while possibly some of my best writing, also caused problems.
I've watched bloggers get serious grief from families, co-workers and other communities they belong to because of what they write. The lessons are painful to watch.
In my own case, in the real world, I've trashed my career multiple times for things like accademic integrity and standing up for a co-worker who's being sexually harassed. I've lost friends for saying the truth, and God help me, it's made me a bit of a coward. I've been burned; I don't like it. I'm willing to be burned again, but it's going to have to be a serious fight. On some issues, I've backed down.
I hate that, but if I don't protect myself, I won't do anyone any good.
There's a book out right now, "Orbit by John J. Nance that speaks of a man alone on a doomed and communicationless 3 hour orbital tour. The man is free to write the truth because he believes he is going to die and the laptop will not be recovered for decades. He doesn't have to worry about what people will think. He also doesn't know there's a one-way connection to Earth, and billions of people are reading his every word.
I wish I could blog like that. I'm not sure why I haven't just scrapped my current blog and started anew, except that I doubt it would stay anonymous very long.
Anonymity provides a freedom that is both precious and necessary for freedom to flourish. Perhaps anonymity will be crushed beneath an over-reaching government. The loss may not be apparent initially, but in the long term, it will be devastating.
Freedom of speech often needs the freedom to be anonymous.
This sig seemed like a good idea at the time....
lowbrow.com lets you anonymously or not post some of the deepest darkest stuff you can imagine, or just plain stupid shit you have done or been involved in... hours upon hours of great entertainment, fun at parties, will not rip, run, or snag!!!
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing. Emo Philips
Most Americans will think of other countries where anonymous speech is required to prevent retaliation by the government - countries like Iran, for instance, where anonymous speech IS thriving.
However, there are plenty of countries in the West - including America - where unpopular minorities require anonymous speech to avoid government retribution.
A friend of mine in Indiana called a conservative radio host (Rick Roberts) in California in April 2005, in order to give a contradicting opinion - and the next day state agents showed up at his house and took away his 2 year old son, causing his son a great deal of anxiety and eventually destroying my friend's marriage. He's still going through the system, trying to recover his son, over a year later.
There are also the death threats, of which I've received a few myself - from so-called Christians, Hippies, and everything in between. Damn straight it's nice to have some anonymity!
And we will continue to need that anonymity as long as a corrupt media continues to perpetuate the lie that anyone who is attracted to children must be a predator, despite an abundance of evidence to the contrary.
In any case, in our community proxies and/or TOR are the norm. We know for a fact that our government IS spying on us and seeking to do us harm.
I'm amazed at how my "generation" (currently in college) still doesn't "get it". They put their full names on their blogs and post the most insane crap. One of my friends, in particular, posts all about her chronic depression, experiments with drugs, and sex escapades. And that blog is the 4th result in Google for her name. The other three are clearly unrelated.
Why shame yourself in public? It's not like attaching your name to your insipid and boring personal "I had eggs for breakfast" blog is going to bring you fame and fortune. Go anonymous and have some fun. Stop doing everything to get attention.
Check out the hidden services on Tor.
If you are running Tor, visit http://6sxoyfb3h2nvok2d.onion/tor/ (the Tor Hidden Wiki) for a bunch of anonymous stuff.
Pseudonymity is no fad, and IMO the practice hasn't seen even a fraction of the popularity it will eventually garner.
This is a no-brainer; governments rarely become less restrictive with the passage of time, since governments are expected to, you know, "do things" and "solve problems." Regardless what political philosophy they adhere to, governments just aren't prone to seeing their duty as one of removing interference from citizens' lives. So all else being equal, a nation's code of justice will tend to become more complex and intrusive with time, increasing its citizens' need to ensure their own privacy.
Pure Anonymity doesn't fulfill many of the criteria that people seek in online interaction & transactions, and Pseudonymity is hard to distinguish from anonymity if it isn't secure and historied. Facilitating private, secure transactions between unique, historied pseudonymous personnae is the task in front of us; after all, technology is fundamentally capable of securing those human rights that governments wrongly cease to recognize.
* -- (resisting the urge to post as AC just for the hell of it)
Pi Ran Out
how 'bout Trendy Fad??
/dev/random
There needs to be a distinction between publicly anonymous and being anonymous to law enforcement. In a democratic society that values free speech, we need the first. However, in case free speech is abused, we need the second, hopefully with a court warrant. ISP's should be required to keep records of who owns/rents a URL and if served a warrant be able to provide that info to officers. However, this gets fuzzy with discussion groups and blogs that may not track every visitor.
Table-ized A.I.
Yes, i already know some of this websites, in fact i post anonymously on one.
I see this like an evolutionated human being (maybe i'm going too far), where the information win his own place. But also the lack of a know author lead to lose some "context".
When someone writes something is to COMUNICATE (maybe not always) what he/she wants, so it could (and will be) be that when the writer put on letters(symbols) what he/she is feeling, lose some of his/her feels and when somebody read the paper not everybody see/feel what he/she wants to share.
So share writes is about communication, and the lack of elements must be "patched" to avoid "noise" that leads to misunderstood.
If the text is an excelent write by the greatest writer ever, he will "patch" the anonymous sign (as he can). (There are some writers that don't need a sign, we can see through)
But ALL of this is great if nobody cares about EGO or Recognition, two factors that are involved with the greatest legacies of humanity.
Yes i love the idea of anonymous authors (with everything) but... i don't expect to be one of the persons who will change the world (like Socrates, Aristotle, Nietzsche...)
So it will be good to ask them what they think about this. (well they are dead... i mean a person like them.)
PS: Today we are in the days where an artist say what is or what is not art.
Rock and Roll
The first thing I thought of after reading the topic was Vernor Vinge's book, A Deepness in the Sky. In that book, the Emergents publish anonymously in order to direct the subject civilization toward their personal end. This included scientific papers, theories to prompt research and development, and current events and opinions designed to incite a global war and hide their presence.
Actually, nowadays, not only do they know that you're a dog, but they know
* What kind of cats you chase
* Where you like to sniff butts
* What kind of dog food you like
* etc...
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Is anonymous blogging and publication a brief fad, or a serious, growing trend?
IF people have anything worthwhile to say, and IF our Constitutionally-protected freedom of speech actually means anything to us, then yes, it is here to stay.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I agree that this is an interesting idea; perhaps specific projects will organize around anonymity / pseudonymity. De5C, or LinuxHDCP for example?
As I said previously above, civic rights will tend to erode, and the DMCA is a prime example of this erosion. This raises a bevy of ethical issues, but if attempts to keep speech free fail at the civic & political levels, the OSS community could conceivably be the one to lead a charge towards securing them at the technological level in spite of laws to the contrary. I think Pseudonymity is more useful than Anonymity, but the technical requirements of truly secure pseudonymity are formidable (e.g. untraceable yet unforgeable, etc.).
Pi Ran Out
This guy is completely right!
James T. Kirk
What happens when the law enforcement agencies are corrupt, as they are in the United States?
What happens when a whole nation has gone insane?
Governments murdered millions in the 20th century.
Stalinist Russia. Maoist China. Nazi Germany.
The United States, with its insane War on Drugs, spawned a proxy war that has been going on for 30 years in Colombia, and has corrupted the police forces of the United States and Mexico (among others).
And right now the U.S. government has pressured governments around the world to persecute millions on the basis of an unpopular sexual orientation (and of course does so at home as well), with the full collaboration of a corrupted media that is out for advertising dollars - not least of all from government advertising.
We need fully anonymous speech, thank you very much.
One of the websites I operate is an unofficial website for an organization that is run by control freaks, They do not tolerate any kind of discourse or criticism. If this website did not operate anonymously there would literally be zero discourse or discussion for the members of this organization. This has been proved by the few times members were outed by there often comments or by telling the wrong person there screen name. Any member outed has always suffered some form of consequences. The consequences have run the gambit from harassing phone calls, mysterious visitors appearing at there work area who are intimidating and actually messing with there finances by with holding work. In a perfect world we wouldn't need to post things anonymously but in the real world many organizations stifle criticism in any manner available. Free speech is usually not free. Having said this I realize there is always a danger of people using this service when they have an ax to grind with someone or some organization. These people can be balanced with commentary by the offended parties. In the end I would rather err on the side of an open discussion.
./what?
The most effective spam fighting effort is totally anonymous; they have to be, because that's the only way they can avoid being sued into oblivion by deep-pocketed croporations (it's outright ironic that in order to protect their freedom of speech - saying that so-and-so is a spammer, they have to register their domain in Siberia, of all places!!!)
Spammers are outright criminals and will stop at nothing to damage antispammers.
Plenty of people had a load of trouble from a spectacularly inept spammer.
For example, the author of this page (a page denouncing the spammer) had the spammer complain to the police which launched a criminal investigation that found nothing. After this failed, he barrages everyone who mirrors the page with complaints to their ISPs (this page get 5 DMCA takedown notices PER DAY).
When the police complaints did lead nowhere, he simply harassed various police departments.
Finally, seeing that the takedown notice make the mirrorers rotating the hosting of the relevant parts complained about, thus rendering it totally ineffective, he started to try to DDOs the sites hosting the pages.
Many of the mirrorers would never had been able to denounce that particular spammer if they had been doing so under their real identities; anonymity is particularly vital when dealing with criminals, or lawsuit-happy individuals.
Another example is this well-known spammer, threatening legal action against antispam fighters. If you follow the thread, you will find a frothing lunatic that demands the identity of several spamfighters who have to work anonymously in order to avoid the hassle of lawsuits from spammers.
In 2003, the same antispam outfit was sued by spammers. Even though the lawsuit was thrown out of court, it was not without considerable annoyance and expense to the antispammers involved.
Only absolutely positive anonymity can help protect antispammers against the spammers.
That is correct. Thank you for providing the details of this clear violation of the Right to Free Speech and Freedom of Association.
As you note, Kevin had his son taken away from him because he dared to speak out.
The authorities knew of his prior conviction but had correctly determined that he was no danger to his son, and only took action after a popular talk show host raised a stink - effectively chilling free speech, and demonstrating to all of us the importance of anonymous speech.
I find it particularly interesting to see how differently internet cultures have evolved in Asia and in the West. In Japan at least, completely anonymous posting and discussion BBS have become extremely commonplace, e.g. 2channel (the largest BBS in the world) and futaba channel. (if you're interested see wikipedia for general info). In the U.S., attempts to imitate the 2ch style of anonymous BBS have not been all that productive and have not succeeded as of yet. For the past few years at least, the most successful type of anonymous content creation (but not necessarily discussion) system commonplace in U.S. internet culture appears to be the wiki. I'm not yet sure why there is this type of divergence, but it certainly originates in real life cultural differences. I am not as familiar with internet cultures in Korea or China, but I believe in both cases anonymous discussion is more prevalent than in the U.S..
But if I don't know who you are, why do I care about what you're writing? It may as well be fiction. Which is fine, if you're fine with that, but then why not just write fiction? Because that's the level at which your writing will be appreciated... If it's not good writing, why would anyone want to read it?
Also: Shitcock?!?!
Luckily, there is no way that Slashdot may be owned and run on that same principle....
I'd argue that it is indeed trendy but not a fad. Lots more people are catching on to anonymous (relatively) posting methods, so clearly there is a trend. But if this were a fad it would fade quickly. Instead it has quietly been building steam since the early days ofthe internet. When I discovered the internet around 1993 (so what if there were people already there, I discovered it and claimed it for my people), I thought usenet and anonymous remailers were probably the best things since pie and sliced bread, respectively. And I was certainly not early to that party, so this sort of thing has been around for some time now.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
That's what works for me...a potential employer searching google for me?? Ha! I hide amongst the 10 million hits for other people with my name (sometimes the same first, middle, and last names). How are they to know which one is me?
;)
And if they do think they are me, well, it actually looks pretty good. Rugby/football/hockey player, professor, musician, comedian, actor...man, I can do everything!
Everything I need to know about copyrights I learned from Slashdot.
What about lazy to sign up? Or in.....
but if I could go to jail for 14 years just calling George Bush a fsckin' asshat, I wouldn't be willing to settle for a pen name. I mean, how much effort does it take in that kind of gov't to track you down by ip?
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
The only long term solution is depoliticization. The very reason that people need to actually care about these things is that the government can come after them in the first place. Solution? Strip the government of such power. Unfortunately, the government can exert a wide range of controls today. It can harass you from anything to the tax code to basic traffic violations to willfully misconstruing something you do. The fewer tenticles that the government has into society, the fewer avenues it has to suppress dissent.
Crack in sidewalk!!! *Runs to get rifle*
"Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING." Clearly the system can't take a joke.
Great Intellect...
http://www.invisiblog.com/
You submit content via the Mixmaster remailer system so that your ISP's records don't show what you were saying or even who you were saying it to. No visible feature for adding comments.
Dunno if they're really alive -- the last activity mentioned on their front page was last October.
I think that something published anonymously lacks the gravitas of something a man will put his own name upon. If memory serves, slashdot terms unattributed posts to "anonymous coward." This is fitting.
If you are to speak with the authority of Socrates, you should make the case against yourself, accept the Athenians' verdict, treat thoughts of escape with contempt, and then manfully deal with the consequences. Centuries ago in England, Hugh Latimer told his friend Nicolas Ridley, "play the man Master Ridley," before they were both burned at the stake.
There are dead lions and there are living dogs. Centuries later, we know the lions' names and are moved by their words.
I hate that, but if I don't protect myself, I won't do anyone any good.
When you don't do the things you know are right, you help others do thing that you know are wrong.
Keep standing up for what you believe. Yes, at times it's good to do some things anonymously. Fliers are a good example. That does not keep you from telling others exactly what you think. If the people around you don't want you doing what's right, it's better to say good bye.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Anybody can be anon. A banker, a criminal, a lawyer even a 12-year old script kiddie on the internet.
Anonymous online publication is just a load of crap, you can make up anything knowing you can get away with it. Just like I am doing now.
Don't believe everything you read. It was true before computers and it will be true when you can't tell the difference between your friends and computers that are much smarter than you.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
On Usenet. Someone quickly responded, that a bigger monster (emphasys mine) remains alive and well in the White House — an assessment I could not agree with.
I immediately had my mental faculties and education declared lacking and being "another evidence of Right Wing's neglect of schools" (never mind that amost all of my education happened in USSR). Among the epithets received were: "idiot", "nazi", and "traitor". Someone stated, that I need "deprogramming"...
Funny as it may sound, the point is, government is not the only thing to be concerned about. In fact, in a reasonably democratic country like US, government's persecution is the least of the concerns...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Funnily enough, I found that the Anonymous Bastards (TM) posting at 4chan (where anonymity is encouraged or, on one board, enforced) give the impression, on average, of being more literate than most of what I commonly see in "normal" message boards and online forums. Why this would be the case, I do not know.
Graduate of the LeRoy Funkified Badass School of Soul.
G-d knows who you are, and soon you must die.
Happy is the man that hath not walked in the counsel of the wicked, ....
We've had psuedonomyous communication on the net and BBSes for years. It sounds like a reporter just found out that people don't always use their real names on the internet.
Consider anon.penet.fi for a simple example.
...2ch.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samizdat
The circumstances were obviously quite different, but samizdat and anonymous pamphlets were once the only weapons of an oppressed people.
It'd be humorously ironic, if it wasn't so sad.
Granted, I exaggerate - the US is in quite different shape from the USSR of old. But there are some intriguing similarities in the paths you're taking.
Yup, quite different. You send people to tropical islands instead of Siberia for detention without trial, for example.
Freedom of speech was a nice concept while the potential reach of speech made by individuals made it mostly harmless. In fact it always has been "say what you want until someone who can kick you in the nuts listens". Now there's a global soapbox where you can climb and try stick it up to The Man. If you do so, you better cover your nuts.
...albeit the discussion depth isn't exactly what you'd call "deep" -- almost all 4chan's posts and replies are made anonymously, and there is definately interaction there, but the biggest problems with such an anonymous system is that no friendships can be forged over the internet, because you don't know who is who; it can be very difficult for administrators to weed out spammers and abusers due to the lack of information stored. Once you start moving up toward usernames, registration systems, and cross-user identification, anonymonity is lost, to the scale of IRC, which would clearly allow tracking to any dedicated enough parties.
Please, tell me!
I'd really love to see it in black and white.
I've seen G-d address many many things in the Bible. I've seen it written that clams, oysters, crabs, lobsters, and shrimp are 'abominations' seen G-d discuss in explict detail the care and cleaning of cum-stains, and chuckled helplessly as G-d explained the reason why latrines are a good idea. (HINT: no one wants to step in it.) I have sat open mouthed at the explict sexual violence depicted in the allegory of Ezekiel 23 and grinned at the biblical account of G-d's plan to 'moon' his chosen people in the 'day of their calamity' and stood there perplexed as I read how G-d commanded a man to knowingly marry a whore.
On the other hand, I've also read where Lot gets drunk, has incest with both of his daughters on alternate evenings and for this he is considered a 'righeteous man'? Oh my bad...that'd be in the New Testament and by your choice of spelling G-d you are apparently Jewish. Well, let's press on shall we? Moses in the book of Numbers declares genocide against captives of war and tells the army to kill all the men and women, excepting only the young virginal girls . Later in Deuteronomy more explicit instructions are given, where G-d makes it clear he sees nothing wrong with making whores out of the captives of war and discarding them when bored of them.
An interesting thing to note about these two instances of scripture is the words used in describing these virgins relates to their way of walking... the way they 'toddle' making a clear age distinction here. This is what so many Muslims are referring to when they say Judiasm supports Paedophilia, as well as their pointing to various clarifications of these rules in the Talmud where the age is spelled out as three years old(!) Then there's the erotic descriptions of the Song of Solomon, where a love affair begins between an older man and a younger girl, evidenced by the way the girl's brothers comment: "We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts[...]" Should I also add that in the book of Judges Samson's father-in-law gives away his first wife to a friend and offers him the younger daughter, because she's nicer looking?
Those few bits aside there is no explict mention of Paedophilia in the Bible. At ALL. In fact you could even say the combination of the passage n Numbers and the passage in Deuteronomy work out towards an endorsement of Nepiophilia... But there is seemingly no mention of this modern scourage that is classified as the 'worst possible sin' in the Bible. This horrid evil thing that kills souls gets no mention, and yet G-d makes the time to talk about how much he hates shellfish and shrimp. G-d manages to find time to explain how to clean the cum-stains off your clothes in the event of a wet dream, manages to explain he doesn't like stepping in shit, and tell dirty stories about whoring sisters and their hung like a horse johns, yet he somehow fails to take the time out to talk about Paedophilia???
Sorry, I'm
There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls. --George Carlin
It's a good job I'm not religious, since I'd never make any connection with him...
"To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free" ~ Nineteen Eighty-Four
Don't give away their secrets! They don't want people to know that it's the people who are in relationships with adults who commit around 90% of child molestation offences. They don't want the Care Act to be passed, which will end most of these child abuse cases.
And why don't the "teleiophiles" want that? I think it's obvious.
~ BLR
"To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free" ~ Nineteen Eighty-Four
It's spelled GOD. G-O-D. There's an O in there, not a dash. This blatantly stupid "OMFGWTFBBQ I CAN'T TYPE A SIMPLE NOUN FOR FEAR OF DISRESPECT!!!" is so profoundly insulting to the concept of intelligence that it pains me to see it.
How do you pronounce "G-D" anyways? I'm assuming if you can't type god, you certainly can't say it. Since G-D refers to your head honcho in the sky, it's thus a name for him, so perhaps even typing that is disrespectful. Maybe you should give him an unpronounceable symbol, just like Prince. Or even better, stop talking about him altogether.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_God_in_Judai sm
There's a site that takes it a step further. Sending anonymous email and then posting the contents of the message.
http://www.venompen.com/
In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king.
http://4chan.org/ is a great anonymous board.
/g/ (technology), /v/ (video games) and /mu/ (music).
They have several image boards as well as a few text only boards.
I frequent
You don't care what other people have to say about sexual morality, and I don't care for your idiosyncratic hermeneutics.
Just imagine how scared you will be when your time comes to die.
I'm frightened by death, it can happen at any time.
http://subuse.net/
Anonymous message boards. Post, interact, etc.
And then, http://subuse.net/level2 , where anyone can anonymously create HTML content and post it for the world to see. Trick is, level2 also allows anyone to anonymously edit anyone else's content at will. Sort of like a wiki, but completely without rules or backups.
Sugapablo
I'm going to laugh at you when you die.
True anonymity is the Holy Grail of free speech, and I seriously doubt any society will be able to achieve it so long as said society has a government. I'm no anonymous coward, but I can think of circumstances where it would be the only way to survive a publication. For example, if you learned of a secret government program that grossly violated the values of its citizens the only way to ensure that you wouldn't dissapear would be to publish anonymously.
:(.
If we did have truly anonymous communications like this, we would probably see two things:
1) A huge decrease in dishonesty, since any lie could easily be exposed by an anonymous communication. For example, if a government denied the existence of something and a government employee knew different - they could simply post the information. That of course assumes the leak couldn't be traced to them by simple process of elimination or interrogation. This type of anonymous communication would actually be most effective for politicians, particularly since they tend to be very partisan and will do just about anything to hurt their rivals. A fair bit of this already goes on by govenrment sources leaking stuff to the media, but it's far from anonymous and I'm guessing the really juicy stuff never makes it.
2) A corresponding (but I would argue acceptable) decrease in the accuracy of popular news. Since many of the most controversial stories would be published anonymously, they might be more difficult (or impossible) to verify, leading to significant bogus stories and baseless accusations. The real danger here would be the possibility of witch hunts.
Essentially, anonymous communication bypasses all restrictions on free speech - including some of the good ones like slander and fire! You could publish a story on an eminent nuclear crisis without fear of the NSA showing up to your house 10 minutes later, but you could also hurt a lot of people with a false story that somehow gained acceptance.
Maybe it's just because I'm a free speech supporter, but I find the idea of completely anonymous e-mail fascinating. Imagine the possibilities! Yes, it could be abused, but I firmly believe human civilazation would find ways to deal with that and become a hell of a lot more honest in the process. It reminds me of a science fiction story where the world's #1 fugitive was able to e-mail governments seeking refuge and had some success. Of course, that example is probably not going to get me a lot of supporters
Can't stop the signal.
Haiku for you!
It's so easy, everyone does it sooner or later.
The days of web anonymity are long gone. No matter how much one sends through proxies or through what series of anonymizer sites, if they want to get you , they will.
The network of web server logs is truly amazing and complex and if the resources are there to investigate every little hop and relay, then they will eventually find what they're looking for.
It's not a matter of trying to hide who the author is of some supposed anti government sentiment or merely an opinion of an individual anymore. It's a matter of finding and politically disarming those forces who are enforcing these subversive, undemocratic motions.
Whining and complaining about how one can't say what one feels, even if it's politically incorrect isn't going to help things. Is it safe to say that a majority of the world is politically correct? Sure, it is! Everbody makes fun of everyone else at the other's expense - it goes on all the time.
It's just that it's more discreet nowadays. The in thing for all governments is to give the minority groups their say and legislate things their way - gets the incumbents more votes!
They messed with Ezra Pound; put him in jail; called him a traitor and although there were reports that he had recanted his past opinions, there were other reports that he was still the same, old obnoxious bahstad he always was until he finally died in self-imposed exile in Italy in 1972.
The point being is that who really gives a damn whether or not they find out who wrote what anymore? They can't throw everyone in jail, or shoot them, can they ?
Giving money and power to government is like giving whisky and car keys to teenage boys.
see Paul Vixie or to cite a less well-known example, and one that even more directly profits from his non-anonymity: Michael Crawford
and I am google hit #6 for Luke Crawford
The Dutch version of Grouphug is named Vergeefmij.
It has almost the same concept as Grouphug: visitors can post confessions anonymously. However on Vergeefmij it's also possible for other visitors to leave comments on those confessions. Since a short while it also offers a forum, where one has to register first to publish topics. For people who really need to post anonymous should use their confession form. Vergeefmij also offers a secure SSL form to enter confessions.
Confessions, and comments, are first moderated by the Vergeefmij staff before being published. The site is doing well for over two years now, I've been a vivid reader of it since it came online. I think there's a trend. For instance there are a lot of teens dealing with self mutilation and anorexia, posting their thoughts online using the confession form. On other forums they won't dare to posts them, because of the need to register with an email account first. Vergeefmij supplies a solution for people who are in need to posts their thoughts quick, without any hazzle and offering online counseling. When people allow other people to comment on their confessions, which is an option on the webform, discussions can be hard and fierce but most of the time people really try to support eachother.
Btw Vergeefmij means 'Forgive Me' in Dutch.
Should ever having read a Steven King or Clive Barker novel make you a any more a suspect for the dismembered body they found last night? What about that college chemistry class you took in 1998, should that indicate you as a possible suspect for the meth lab they found a block from your house? Should this along with other similar circumstantial evidence be enough for you to be convicted? If law enforcement has creditable physical evidence this type of circumstantial support is unnecessary and a dangerous methodology.
Matthew
For something to appear credible it almost has to have a name attached to it. I think one thing that has been shown by the internet is that with anonimity a large chunk, if not am outright majority, of humans are not to be trusted.
I'm no healthnut, but I'm interested: www.healthbolt.net