Date: Fri, 15 May 2009 13:00:32 -0400
From: Donna Kelly
Subject: RE: Chatham Chatlist #3420
> Thank you, Gene. I am in complete agreement with you and others
> who think along these lines. Whether someone uses their name
> or not has nothing to do with their credibility but does indeed
> have a lot to do with making comments and/or sharing information
> without fear of reprisal from friends, neighbors, families, and
> the community at-large.
>I doubt we are dealing with constitutional level conversations, but
>it DOES have to do with credibility when someone makes inappropriate
>or offensive comments, threats, idiotic arguments, etc., and hides
>because they won’t stand up and face the fallout. That person is not
>credible enough for their comments to be considered in any serious
>way. It is a form of cowardice, notwithstanding the legal right to be
>one.
>Darryl
If someone has already destroyed their credibility by making inappropriate or offensive comments, threats, idiotic arguments, etc, then how or even if they sign their name makes little difference. Especially when dealing with an email list, unless you happen to recognize the name and email address of the person posting any post is the opinion of an unknown person of whom you know nothing unless they have a history of posting.
In the end, we must all judge for ourselves the credibility of any information we receive. Since I believe in personal responsibility I believe it’s the responsibility of the individual reading to decide for themselves how much weight to give any individual post. I would much rather have to ignore the occasional rogue post than to give that responsibility to someone else to decide for me what I can and cannot read.
Donna