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Getting comments right

March 1, 2008 - 2:28pm — yelvington

Mark Potts runs through the details of Philly.com's reborn commenting system, which takes a good-enough approach to the complex problem of encouraging conversation in a world where an unfortunate percentage of us are idiots. As I've said previously, pseudonymity is a reasonable Middle Way.

I've been down the Real Names path. It's not a bad one. But my next-door neighbor in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, was one of several hundred Tom Johnsons in the area, and my next-door neighbor in Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota, was one of several hundred Richard Johnsons. Sometimes handles can be more precise.

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