Good thoughts, general decay.

I don't really like allowing non-members to comment with "anonymous." I'm sure the thought is that doing so will generate more traffic, AKA page views, as primary goal, and as secondary goal, that some of these people might join NP.

If someone doesn't care enough to spend the very few minutes required  to get a free NP membership, then why should they be allowed to "hit and run" comment and just drop little bombs into the community? Or is this not a community? I don't know the answer to that.

One thing I'm concerned about: the recent increase in blatant flaming, snarking, sarcasm, and chat room style behavior. Since the staff hasn't turned up when those things are going on, I'm just assuming that since controversy  generates attention (fight! fight! in junior high school gets 'em running!), the flaming policy is now passe.

If "anonymous" drops a comment bomb and leaves, no way to have dialogue.

And I doubt we'll get much "collective wisdom" out of anonymous postings. We will get a lot of chat room style comments and old USENET style comments, betcha.

And so what if someone shows up and says "Hey, I know where in 1952 they hid a UFO, my grandfather was there and I just checked it out and it's still there, hidden." You can't verify that at all. So what "collective wisdom" is there in that?

There's one school of thought that says "any attention is good attention" (the school of thought some rock stars seem to follow! trash a hotel, get arrested, so what, it's all putting your name in the news), and I guess the 'net version of that is "any action is good action."

Over on Alexa, I see that NP has been in a downward trend, but had a sudden spike on or after July 5.

Flaming, and other comments which violate TOS will get summarily deleted; such is the tradeoff of "anonymity", as one cannot PM a user with no account... the idea here is to get people hooked on discussion, not to allow rampant flaming. However, since anon can't be easily tracked, anon comments require constant monitoring by human eyes, so we'll be tracking down the baddies as best we can. Hopefully our users will PM us if they find anonymous comments that violate our Terms of Service.

This really interesting. I've had several email notices that "Anonymous" has commented or updated a story of mine, but when I check it out, he is no where in sight. no comment, no photo, nada. particlularly on my English Schoolboys story. Here's the link in the email:

http://upload.nowpublic.com/world/english-schoolboys-punished-detention-refusing-kneel-class-and-pray-allah?page=1#comment-120616

I don't think this allowing unregistered to comment is a good idea for the security of the site on a whole. Maybe just as bad as the ad-rotator.

There's a tremendous slow-down on loading site.

This is great news for spammers who will be able to post tons of spam comments, I think editors have a busy time ahead of them.

I'm all for anonymous commentary - if we're democratizing news, we have to apply the same rule to commentary - but how would I remove an inappropriate comment?

(spot the newbie question. I bet you I've looked right past the button to remove comments!)

I am certainly not for Anonymous comments and find this feature rather annoying. It does not tell readers what previous or current stories the author has published nor his/her wherabouts. In addition, if someone wanted to hide his "true identity" nicknames could be used. But nicknames shoul not hide previous stands on an issue or story.  Furthermore, it withdraws the bloking facility from them.Are Anonymous members to become a priviliged type wo hide their bias? If I could ask NP to kindly widraw such facility, I would really appreciate it.

Not good enough. Very bad policy decision. I am totally insulted and outraged. Anonymous has already been flaming. Just how do you propose to monitor that?

Looks like anonymous can also access newsroom forums. How cool is that?

Re: anonymous user status, as Antoine and Blaine from Men on Film, on Keenan Ivory Wayans' In Living Color used to say, "Hated it!" , for all of the reasons others here stated they don't like it! 

Hadsie, you're preaching to the choir here. Undoubtedly may of those 'insightful anonymous comments' may have come from NowPublic members who suddenly discovered just how blazingly fast you can comment that way! rather than taking four hours to get just 10 comments posted.

Besides I no longer care about the ranking system. We're not getting paid. Rank is a poor substitute.

Oh this is KILLING me!

There I was, all exited about being the Top Story and now I realise what a spam-magnet that is.  Who do I need to speak to to get a "Delete Spam" button?  Where is there I can sign a petition to get one built if it doens't exist?

Who is Sweetness (not verified)? Is this an anonymous poster or a new member?

Note: suddenly, all avatars are the standard head when comments appear in the comment box on the front page--not just the Anonymous ones.

Note: when Anonymous posters can post quickly, and also get URLs included, and members have to  go through the CAPTCHA features, something's backwards, IMHO.

I'm sure that will get fixed quickly but wanted to point it out to the bug chasers. :)

I am soon celebrating a first year anniversary as a Member of NowPublic. In that year i have had many exchanges with other members and remain always interested in the differences and similarities that we all have philosophically and how we each view the world we share. During that time I have only felt the need to participate and contribute to discussions without trying to influence the decision makers of this Newsroom. However, I do believe that based on the current situation of abuse from individuals who can not be held accountable that i should speak out. I believe that many are and more will take advantage of this open door policy and it puts into grave danger the future success of this News agency.

I understand the need to make this news medium more accessible to a general population but there must be a system in place that can filter out what will become a never ending attack on Now Public and its contributors. Surely no other Newsroom in the world would allow unknown people to randomly come off the street and publish or broadcast what they please themselves to say (especially with the intention of hurting or misinforming others).

Now Public is more important then the many news sites that we all visit while searching for news items to include here. This is a place where the internet provides a forum to share and comment on the events that are taking place around us. To bring a voice of observation from a myriad of view points that otherwise would go unheard. I appreciate my membership here and take issue with anyone that abuses those that make this virtual experience work each day.

Anonymous (unverified) can still email me. even after the three lines were added. Do NOT

get this, guys! Guess you're not concerned about this, and are not considering multiple contributors wishes at all. figures.

WHAT?! Anon. posters can email us, too? Wow. So, they get faster, slicker posting, they can add links to their websites--or any website, even spam--to their posts, and they can email us.

Hmmm. On the red carpet: anon. posters.    ;} Sweeping and maintaining the red carpet: NP contributors.

Well, they will get more page views this way, no doubt.

This is just awful, so now we know what NowPublic staff thinks of contributors.

There could be a security issue with unregistered users which could effect all of us.

Our latest contributor: http://members.nowpublic.com/fuckyouninja

Love it? Get a clue, staff.