Blog-Comments - Anonymity by JD Stemwedel

A very intesting post from

Janet D. Stemwedel (whose nom de blog is Dr. Free-Ride) is an assistant professor of philosophy at San Jose State University. Before becoming a philosopher, she earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry.



**snip...

This is the same principle that drives scientists to compare notes about experimental systems and to try to reproduce each other's experiments: If I'm the only one who sees this, it might all be in my head, but if others are seeing this too, it's really there. A paper diary doesn't offer this kind of sounding board -- nor does a blog without any commenting readers.

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In a perfect world, people in the workplace would always respond to your ideas rather than, say, retalliating against you for voicing them. (It doesn't even need to be retalliation; sometimes people just start discounting you if you voice an idea that doesn't fit with their assumptions.)

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but some of the people listening aren't fair-minded. Indeed, some of the people listening may be jerks. It doesn't mean you should just shut up, or not try to create safer spaces for speaking up. But you may have to be ready to roll when the road gets bumpier than you expected it to be.
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AND THEN THIS:

an academic blog I used to read that I enjoyed quite a lot. I had to stop, though, when it became apparent that the (anonymous) blogger was married to someone that I knew. (What clinched it was a post about a social occasion that I attended.) To keep reading the blog would have felt, to me, like a violation of the blogger's trust --




Very good comments also

Ann Þ