Outing Anonymous Commenters or Why Get Equal Needs to Get Real!

The Bilerico Project's Alex Blaze posts a picture of two Twitter messages posted on the account of Get Equal. Get Equal is a nationwide LGBT advocacy group, who was also one of the organizers for today's rally outside of the Indianapolis City Market. In the messages, the organization's director and co-founder Robin McGehee, wants to know the identity of a blog commenter. The commenter, AndrewW, often posts on LGBT blogs anonymously. And I guess his comments have hit a nerve with McGehee so much that she wants to know man behind the screen name. For what reason, I have no idea.

If this is the type of professionalism that Get Equal believes in, count me out. Indiana already has enough LGBT advocacy groups that do their work half-assed, and it doesn't need dirt diggers to add to the mix. If the largest companies and organizations spent all day replying and worrying about anonymous commenters on the Internet, they'd never get anything accomplished.

If AndrewW is reading this, you're safe here. I allow anonymous commenting because I believe in opening the lines of communication as much as possible. And while I might glance over the data provided by SiteMeter, I'm not going to do any serious dirt digging into finding out WHO it is. Most blogs practice similar methods because not everyone is comfortable with posting publicly for whatever reason.

My advice to the Get Equal crew? Take down those two tweets and move on. It seems your organization is relatively new, so just chalk it up to a rookie mistake.

You aren't really all that anonymous on the Internet

As someone who writes a blog that nobody reads, I don't get very many comments (it's okay, I don't expect them. Any I do get are a welcome bonus). And those that I do get are usually anonymous.

I make it a point to make sure that I'm never hiding behind a screen name. I publish my Twitter with my real name, have my real name on this account, and comment on various blogs either using the same screen name or linked to my Facebook or Twitter. I don't believe in hiding behind a screen name. I believe that those who exercise their right to free speech should also be able to handle the rights of everyone else to respond to their speech.

So I received an anonymous comment on the short piece I did on Councilor Minton-McNeill, who I believe should resign. It's been 9 weeks and counting since she's done any business on the council, including missing meetings on the city budget and the expanded smoking ordinance. This comment looked to be from some Internet defender of her, but this person is posting these messages elsewhere under the name "Charlie Stewart", as in here.

Mr. Stewart's comment on my blog left no real information to go on and I did not go out and search for his name. I regularly read Indiana Barrister and that entry has gotten a lot of attention.

Mr. Stewart says he is a neighborhood president and, due to the information he claims to know, an insider with Minton-McNeill. Surely he would know that the hush-hush attitude she's been keeping with the public can't be good for her political future. My advice to him: Stop hiding behind anonymous Internet accounts and get your pal to speak up, do the right thing and resign. There's no job in the real world where you can take 9 weeks off with no public explanation and expect to still have it when you get back. Council seats should be no different.

That being said, there are situations where if she has a legitmate reason for being absent, she should keep her seat. But considering Minton-McNeill is not saying ANYTHING, let's just say I have faith in my fellow citizens and I hope she proves me wrong by making her situation public.