[Blog] Anonymous Comments Disabled

Last week, one of my co-workers said something that seemed fairly straightforward to me. He said, "Internet plus anonymity equals asshole."

Those of you who visit the site rather than read the feed know that I've had a particularly stubborn thorn in my side over the last month and a half.

To be honest, this wouldn't be the first time that I've had a critic and it won't be the last. However, most of my critics have either posted using contact information so I could communicate with them in a meaningful fashion, or contacted me out-of-band so that we could debate in a private forum.

I don't mind critics, but I do like having a general idea who is criticizing me so that I can properly gauge the criticism.

When I see a mail notification saying that I have a comment from "Morgan," for example, I know that it's most likely a well-thought-out post and I'll have something to either research or think about. While I have no idea who "Morgan" is, the name association along with the quality of the posts has given credence to the feedback.

When I see a mail notification saying that I have a new comment from Anonymous, however, I have no idea what to expect. While I suspect that this most recent Anonymous is one of my former co-workers from Microsoft Game Studios in Salt Lake, I can't prove it. It also doesn't correspond to any of my four major traffic pulls over the last month: Hanover, Pennsylvania; Redmond, Washington; Rochester, New York; or Bangalore, India.

If my anonymous critic wishes to continue being critical, he is welcome to. I haven't deleted any of his comments to now, and I have no intent of doing so in the future. But he'll have to log in just like everyone else.