Friends, Long Islanders, county executives, lend me your ears.
A recent barrage of comments assailing Suffolk’s deputy county executive, James Morgo, has led the scales of a long-entertained debate at LIBN over blog commenters to tip at last to one side.
The last issue had to do with “sock puppetry,” which is when one commenter posts several comments under different aliases in order to appear like he or she is leading a posse of like-minded individuals.
This has happened a lot.
LI Biz Blog is a newspaper-run blog, so as of today we are requiring commenters to follow similar rules to the ones papers employ in their letters to the editor pages. Users must register and be logged in, as well as have one approved comment, to participate in discussions on this blog. By doing this we can make sure people aren’t falsely representing themselves on this blog.
For example, it would be a disservice to our readers if we let County Executive Steve Levy write a letter to LIBN, under the moniker Awesome Bill, claiming Steve Levy’s ideas for Suffolk are the best-hatched plans the world has ever seen.
Lastly, the majority of commenters to this blog have brought sincere, intelligent and necessary discussions to this site. Please, don’t be dissuaded to register and continue to share your valuable inputs.
Discussion is critical to a good blog, which is why we want to ensure the integrity of the discussion.
Thank you.
Hey guys, while I understand the issue involved in sock puppetry. I’ve been around the Internet a long time and I remember such classic examples as John Lott creating the character of Mary Rosh.
The hing is, asking people to register seriously reduces the number of comments and there are already very few comments here on LI Biz Blog. Plus, it’s not like this is going to deter a determined sock puppeteer. It’s pretty easy to get a WordPress.Com account. I could get a whole bunch of them if I really wanted to. For all you know, I could really be Peter King, coming on here to rail against your liberal media bias and terrorism mollycoddling ways..
I agree with the previous commenter, this is a solving something that really isn’t a problem. I think it would be great to get some more lively discussion going on some of the topics often posted but I’m not sure what the best way to encourage it would be.
Then again, both of you registered, commented, and now we have the beginnings of an intelligent debate.
Determined sock puppeteers, spammers and flamers will inevitably find ways to post, but does that mean we should make it easy for them?
Believe it or not. We’ve had to remove a lot of this stuff.
Thank you for registering. We value your participation.
I love the term “Sock puppetry.” That is priceless! I too hope it encourages dialogue.