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Poole To Zuckerberg: You’re Doing It Wrong

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the also-something-about-bases dept.

An anonymous reader writes "At South by Southwest Interactive 2011 in Austin, Texas this week, 4chan founder Christopher Poole (also known as 'moot') took the stage to talk about various online issues. One of these was how important anonymity is on the Internet and how Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg doesn't get it."

2 of 371 comments (clear)

  1. Re:moot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This illustrates part of Moot's point, I think; before you can begin to receive his idea, let alone process it, you already know who made the statement, and that has colored your perception in some way (you aren't obviously for or against 4chan, but you clearly know what it is). Anonymity is therefore arguably better for the transmission and sharing of ideas, because each idea is forced/allowed to stand on its own. Obviously there is also a place for credited work, such as peer-reviewed submissions, but I think his position is a strong one.

    I think he's missing the point of Facebook a little bit, though; it isn't (at least in my experience) an exchange of ideas or the nexus of a creative endeavor. It's a really fancy online address book.

  2. Re:Anonymity IS cowardice (hence the userid) by guspasho · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Do you know any previously-closeted gays? Or currently-closed ones that haven't come out to everyone yet?

    Have you ever lived in a small community?

    Have you ever tried asking friends and family members about something personal and embarrassing to you, like erectile dysfunction? In a restaurant, or at a ball game?

    Beyond the rare cases where one is actually threatened with death or imprisonment, social ostracization occurs all the time, and stigmas are attached to practically everything, especially in small communities. These make it difficult, even unbearable, to live openly. I recommend you read these Wiki articles:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_of_silence

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shame_society

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilt_society

    One can hope for a perfect world where nobody has anything to fear from sharing everything with anyone, but such a world is unrealistic in the extreme.

    I can go on 4chan and find people asking about things like erectile dysfunction, but I can't imagine that many people are willing to join groups about that on Facebook. That's the value of anonymity.