posted by
martyb
on Friday November 27 2015, @12:01AM
from the names-are-complex--there-are-real-and-imaginary-ones dept.
from the names-are-complex--there-are-real-and-imaginary-ones dept.
The Montana Standard always collected real names from people in their comments section, but until recently allowed them to post under a screen name.
Their new policy is to display the real name.
They will also display the real names of all people who posted pseudonymous comments before the policy changed. This is bad news for anyone who had a good reason to use a nom de plume.
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Newspaper Retroactively Imposes Real-Name Policy for Comments
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(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @01:06AM
A sad day for Anonymous Cowards everywhere.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @03:42AM
Imagine what would happen if that other slash-something site did that. Lots of people would be pooping their panties.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @07:18AM
You know a girl called Madison Ashley too??? What a coincidence!!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @02:59PM
I hear she's a slut though... and filled to the brim with STDs...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @01:11AM
Anyone who gave them their real name is a fool in the first place. And who knows what they were doing with that information even before the names went public.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @01:22AM
Something tells me that the Montana Standard isn't drawing a particularly tech or anything savy commenter.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by zocalo on Friday November 27 2015, @07:32AM
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Gravis on Friday November 27 2015, @01:30AM
if you give your information to a website, you should assume it will become public.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @07:23AM
If you give your true name to an evil pagan they may use it against you.
The ancients had much wisdom: To avoid being hexed and vexed, conceal your true name.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by mth on Friday November 27 2015, @01:36AM
While I think retroactively applying the real-name policy is a shitty thing to do, poor handling of personal data, intentional or accidental, is so common that I think it's good to take precautions. If a newspaper asks for your real name when you post there, assume your real name is connected to that post, even if it's not visible today. If you don't want your name to ever show up next to that post, either use a fake name or just don't post there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @02:58AM
You can't even count on that. Tracking and profiling is literally a multi-billion dollar business because it is so pervasive. If you give your name to one website that is in cahoots with one or more of the hundreds of personal data farmers out there you'll never know what other clients of that data farmer will be able to figure out about you when you use their websites even with a fake name.
As ludicrous as it sounds, maybe the best thing to do is change your name to something totally generic - there must be at least a couple hundred thousand "John Smiths" out there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @07:52AM
You can't even count on that. Tracking and profiling is literally a multi-billion dollar business because it is so pervasive
And it's as effective as it is because most people are technology illiterate. Were that not the case, their multi-billion dollar waste wouldn't amount to anything. I don't give my name to any websites and have all the standard anti-tracking extensions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @08:11AM
Do you use a VPN and change your egress IP regularly? If you don't then you are still trivially tracked by IP address. If you ever make a purchase online to be delivered to you then they've got your name and can cross-reference that with your IP address.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @08:35AM
Do you use a VPN and change your egress IP regularly?
And more. I don't make purchases online. I don't even have a cellphone.
And personally, I think you're overestimating their competence.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @03:14PM
> And personally, I think you're overestimating their competence.
All of silicon valley is focused on generating advertising revenue. Low-hanging fruit isn't sufficient for that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @06:08PM
Except that the low-hanging fruit accounts for 99% of the population, so you're wrong.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by aristarchus on Friday November 27 2015, @02:25AM
Just look it up. Butte, the Berkeley Pit, asshole of the world. Nothing good ever comes out of Butte, except Evel Knievell, and that is only because the high levels of heavy metals that he had as a result of growing up in Butte made him do stupid things with motorcycles! Retro-active? Can they _do_ that? Violation of implicit contract, at the very least. But if you know history that would could for very little in Butte. Standard Oil, John D. Rockefeller, bare knuckle corrupt capitalism of a century ago. Crap, at one point, Rockefeller bought out all the newspapers in the entire state of Montana, just to make sure the right news was reported. And then there is what they did to Hauser, the engineer who got the Andaconda Company (Oh, did I mention it was the Anaconda Company? they had a nice cameo appearance in the "Motorcycle Diaries", formative in the life of Che Guervera) to convert to electricity from steam, and for his efforts was crushed. Andaconda (hey, crushing is just what anacondas do!) was a precurser of yet another captain of industry and professional monopoloist, Microsoft followed the same pattern, buying up the competition, vertically integrating, and succeeding by controlling the press with Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. Someday, Redmond will be a ghosttown just like Butte is today, a monument to one man's greed and lack of humanity. And geese will die. Lots of geese, in the toxic waters left in the pit of operating systems that used to be Microsoft. God save us all. And cancel your subscription to the Montana Standard.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @03:00AM
> Just look it up. Butte, the Berkeley Pit, asshole of the world.
Don't you mean buttehole of the world?
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday November 28 2015, @02:28AM
Holy cow, you know Butte? Another Montanan? I'm surprised at the relative density of Montanans on this site...
My father grew up in Butte. He told stories about how frequently they'd find dogs and cats by the side of the creek running through town, dead because they had drunk the water. He swore kids from Butte were the highest performing students in the state, knowing that if they couldn't get the hell out they'd spend the rest of their lives in Butte. The School of Mines and Engineering is still one of the highest rated technical schools in the world, I believe, so that's one other good thing that comes out of Butte.
When I was a young teen we went to an auction at the old smelter in Anaconda, up on the hill. I remember how barren the hilltop above was--the fumes from the smokestack were so toxic nothing would grow up there. It was interesting to wander through the chemists labs and workshops; A lot of the workmen's lockers still had coveralls and lunch boxes in them from 70-80 years before. Toward the end of the day I tried to push one of those heavy mining carts laden with iron scrap, fittings, and other salvage 20 yards up the hill to our truck. I slipped on the gravel, lost control of the cart, and watched as it rolled all the way down the hill and sailed off into the massive tailing pond below. I was so grateful it didn't kill anyone.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday November 28 2015, @07:15AM
Yes, I know Butte. But I am from the Greek island of Samos, in the 3rd Century BC, and so have lived many places. Some of the best years were in Montana, back in the days when Mountain men were men, and Mountain sheep were nervous. (Sorry, couldn't pass on the joke!) Some other interesting stories: The Clark's Fork of the Columbia used to run red with the toxic waste from the Butte mines. At some point, a chemist found a tin can that had been tossed into the river, and realized it was copper plated. So since they were just throwing money downstream, they managed to clean up the effluent a bit. (More history in the deconstruction of the Bonner Dam).
And then, the hills behind the Anaconda smelters: at one point, the federal government was going to sue Rockefeller for damage to Forest Service land. Ol' Tricky John arranged a land swap that made the damaged land part of the Anaconda holdings. Case dismissed. Of course, the tailing piles and the damage are all still there. Just upstream of Warm Springs.
My one other story is that only a while ago I was discussing news with a Navy guy who happened to hail from Great Falls. We were considering the claims of the alleged Navy Seal who claimed he was the one who shot Osama, but then it came out that the guy was from Butte. Both of us, at the same time, said, "Liar". Some things never change. But then, some things do.
I miss Montana. And I too have noticed a preponderance of Montanans, current and expatriot, on SoylentNews. It is the one thing that gives me hope. God knows the Arkansans really don't add much.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @03:02AM
You mean that when they asked, people actually gave them their real name???
If so, then those stupid ones have just got what they deserve.
At one point the Wash. Post website had a "tell up about yourself" questionnaire before they would let one read an article. I was a 97 year old Afgan woman one, an 86 year old philippno man once, etc. Translation: they (wash post) _never ever_ got any answer that was even anywhere near grounded in reality.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @03:13AM
Ah, so now we know that you, Anonymous Coward, are actually not either a 97 year-old Afghan woman or an 86 year-old Filipino man. This narrows things down considerably. Thank you for your cooperation, citizen!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @03:46AM
When I sign up for a website (like this one) I use a junk email address registered with a junk name.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @06:44AM
I always use my real name.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @07:05AM
is that so, Mr. Anonymous Coward
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @07:03AM
I've been living at the Simpsons residence for roughly 20 years now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @08:13AM
You mean that when they asked, people actually gave them their real name???
If so, then those stupid ones have just got what they deserve.
Because a world where telling someone your name has all kinds of unforseen consequences is a totally just and equitable world.
That is what you meant by 'deserve' right?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @08:45AM
Breach of contract. Sue their pants off.
(Score: 2) by acp_sn on Friday November 27 2015, @04:16PM
always lie, always be wary, assume everyone who asks will use that information in a way that is harmful to you
sadly that is the world we live in, you literally can't trust anyone
while you are in some databases you aren't in all of them
marketing/advertising is like any other toxic hazard, if you can't 100% protect yourself you do what you can to minimize your exposure
(Score: 2) by unzombied on Saturday November 28 2015, @12:45AM
Newspapers used to protect sources. Reporters were sent to jail for protecting anonymity. Were famous for it. Honored in the community, even. Not this newspaper. Which is shameful.