Facebook Comments And Online Anonymity [Update: Forget About It]

As I’m trying to make up my mind about whether or not to make Facebook comments the exclusive commenting system in Beirut Spring, I’ve been doing some reading. Robert Scoble wrote a very good post today (which is part of a larger discussion about comments in blogs) arguing that anonymous commenting should be history, and that the person writing comments is as important (if not more important) than the comment itself:

the same information has different value depending on where it comes from. Here, let’s try it out:
Anonymous person says “Android sales have doubled in past year.”
Google engineer says that.
Google’s CEO says that.
It can be the same information, but it’s more credible, more POWERFUL coming from someone who uses their real name

I still haven’t made up my mind, as there are other arguments against Facebook comments. I’m also aware that this blog deals with sensitive topics where people don’t necessarily want to broadcast their opinions to their grand mothers and neighbors.

That said, I could very well move soon to a Facebook commenting system only. This won’t completely prevent anonymity (you can still login using a yahoo account, create an anonymous Facebook profile or send me an anonymous email in response to posts), but it will make commenting easier and comments more civilized. It will also prevent trolls and spammers (those you don’t currently see because I spend a considerable time deleting them as they appear).

Update: The people have spoken. This Facebook comment thingy is just about as popular as Wi2am Wahhab. I removed it..

Update 2: I also removed the Re-Captcha to make it easier to comment. Let’s see how that works out too..