Just to clarify - I didn't object to anything about people voting comments down on digg - I just said that we won't be implementing that kind of voting system here; and second of all it has never taken me days to respond to anything, so please don't assume anything about what staff does or does not do.

I must admit that even though we get some good anon comments on balance I am still not in favour of them because of the abuse and spam. What also concerns me is the fact that anons can recommend posts, how do we know that people are not recommending their own work by not signing in or getting friends to recommend their work. If people can't be bothered to join why should they be able to affect what rises to the front page.

I have noticed now that anon recommendations carry more weight than volume of hits, yesterday a post with the most hits on site was buried on page 5!, in the past the amount of hits helped a post to move up but not anymore it seems.

I do second Vinny his comment here. And yes, I did change my mind after what I saw on some post such as Fri. Ti. and Pair a guy...

I agree Vinny. This is out of hand. I just saw a post that said "death to the jews". What do we need this kind of nonsense. Besides, If we are all committed to spending our time on NP at least they need to be sensitive to this situation and do something about it. Otherwise, I am afraid that it too will pass on to the graveyard of relevant web sites that went bad because of ownership not taking care of business and preserving the integrity of the site.

Why not just make anyone who wishes to post a comment they must register like the rest of us, and have to use name, location etc, seems simple to me!

I realize this past week has been a bit stressful in regards to anon commenting, and I can fully relate to your frustration in regards to anon comments sometimes. I have seen both cases; a story that has attracted a lot of first-hand anon comments, which have added a lot to the story, and then also a story which has attracted a lot of negative and nasty anon comments and I and the other staff have to scramble to delete them as fast as possible.

We of course do take our members thoughts about a subject into consideration and we appreciate you guys keeping the conversation going.

We don't know that people aren't recommending their own posts, but as anon recommendations are only worth one point - we thought it wouldn't make too much difference if people do recommend their own pieces. It won't move the post up at all.

I'm sorry I don't have a real answer for you all at the moment, but I wanted to let you know that I am reading this and making note of what is said.

First of all, I just wanted to say thanks so much for all your comments here - they are much appreciated and we know that this is a charged  issue, so we wanted to try and come up with some solutions together as a community.

I have spoken to Mike Tippett and we are all keen to keep the conversation going, however, please know that we feel the anon comments and recommendations add value to the site and so are here to stay.

We'd like to decide collectively on the best course of action and we've come up with a few ideas of some things that we could do, and we also want to hear from you about what you think we could do to get the most out of anonymous comments and recommendations.

Here are a few ideas that we came up with so far:
1) Having a 'report this comment' button on a comment
2) Change the recommendation points to make the anon recommendations worth way less so that it would take so many anon recommendation points to make up even one 'regular' member's recommendation. That way, anon recommendations woudn't be worth that much at all.
3) Let authors hide anon comments on their story

Let's try and come up with some ideas and in the meantime, please post your own suggestions here.

In a week, we can look back at this thread and see what the best and most liked suggestions are.

However, also please be aware that these things don't change overnight and anything we do will take time, and will have to be fitted in with the rest of the software development on the site. But we want to hear your input and see what we can do collectively, as a community.

If you see any anon comments that concern you in the meantime, please message us and let us know.

As usual we will aim to deal with these as quickly as possible.

Thanks so much and we look forward to any suggestions you might have.

I wasn't going to comment on this again but I would like to add one:

4) Only allow people who can be bothered to take the time to join NP be allowed to recommend posts and influence what shows on the front page.

But of cause you have already ruled that option out so why even bother asking members!

of cause making an anon comment is different from making an anon recommendation. Do anon comments help push a post to the front page? I think the number of readers as opposed to members who peruse a post is more important than the members patting each other on their backs.

With the new system it is only recommendations that influence the front page not comments or volume of hits.

this has certainly been a long and protracted debate. May be it would be better if only members could recommend a post? Still leaving anon's (the readers) to able to leave a comment but the comment is rated zero. Also only members can recommend another comment. This should make NP and its members happy?

Makes sense to me Zichi!

On the point of anon recommendations I would like to point out that I did a test on one of my own old posts and was able to add 7 anon recommendations to it, I could of added as many as I wanted. This means that the system is clearly open to abuse and if anon recommendations are to be allowed what will stop anyone from doing the same as I was able to?

Here's the post I did my test on.

I back you on that amyjudd. I have personally always had a quick (I mean in minutes) response to my alerts.

My spat with the site was not on that subject however, but the fact that anon comments even exist at all. I did not, like others here, obtain their interdiction, which I would have preferred, but I consider that an honorable compromise will have been reached if and when the site implements all three of your suggestions. I quote them here;

"1) Having a 'report this comment' button on a comment
2) Change the recommendation points to make the regular member points worth more so that it means much less when an anon recommendation is given.

3) Let authors hide anon comments on their story"

Thanks.

Thanks everyone for your comments here about anon commenting and recommendations. Just to let you know that we are discussing what the best course of action is and then we'll make a posting here about what we can do.

Thanks.

I came on site this morning to find the top story on the front page was a spam post with 50 anon recommendations!

What annoys me is when a writer or an article seeder uses aliases too comment agreements to his or her article or seed. I caught one the other day that belongs to a religious cult, I feel a bit guilty because I spiked the individuals plot and then drew the guy into a trap after venomous attacks on my character where made. 

i realized after I should of kept my cool and left the whole issue to a moderator. I do feel that when anon is used that members here should have the right to eradicate anon comments and give a reason to the administration why they did so.

What I must say there has been a big improvement on the software and nonpublic is heading in the right direction and as an ex software writer I know some requirements are limited to the software used. So what I suggested above may not be possible as to the fact of separating the conditions of the anon's separate from the members.  

I have therefore one more suggestion that I realize I need to do myself just do not take notice of the trolls as if you feed them they become more trollish.

On analyzing most of the articles and comments I read daily I feel the problem is a very small one and maybe like me in one incident,  some members may be building a mountain out of the mole hill. As long as we the members respect each other and our view how ever outlandish nowpublic will be a haven of peace and good debate. 

I respect the comments and feedback i get under my storys as this i find allows me to gain experience in my next story. Plus always nice to get possitive feedback.

However, having comments left from ''not verified'' accounts that call me names is not called for. I personnally feel ''not verified'' users shouldn,t be allowed to leave comments under storys only allowed to read them.  If they wish to leave comments then be like the rest of us.

I could ignore there comments but don,t wish to look as if ignoring them however i might start leaving the follwoing under all my storys

''Any one who has a not verified account and wish to leave comments and waiting for a responce will be wasting there time as any comments they leave will be ignored''

I am new to this site, as I signed up so I would not be an 'anon' or 'useless' poster. As the member of several publishing sites like this one, I wanted to address the technical and societal side of my other 'Internet residences'. 

 This statement was made by Amy Judd as a comment to this post: "We can't give each user the ability to delete comments on their own post as the technology just does not exist for it, but we have looked into that already as we thought of it as an option as well."

The technology does exist at most sites I frequent, they do allow for and do have the technical ability to delete comments from one's own story. If this one does not, I would find its formatting to be quite rare. I imagine this is actually an option in the set up of the site as a forum style set of pages, and is not impossible to change. 

However, does it really behoove you to silence dissenting opinions when they could be a springboard for making yet another point to your story by answering such comments? That is what discourse is about.. If someone posts defamatory statements, or things that are not allowed by the user agreement of the site, turn it in, and I imagine it will be deleted if it actually breaks the rules of posting.

Deleting comments, though, is nearly censorship, if the commenter made a point. Isn't having an open forum news site like this one actually attempting to point in the opposite direction, more toward journalistic freedom?

Being anonymous does not always mean 'evil lurker'. People have other reasons as well. I would have replied anon to this myself, and could have, but I felt that joining this site might actually further my horizons. 

So far, my first comment is making me feel like a school teacher correcting incorrect students. Oops! I don't mean to sound preachy, I guess it's part of my authoritarian writing style!

Thanks for your comment.

When I made that comment you are referring to, I meant that we don't have the technology on our site; I wasn't speaking for all sites on the internet as some do have this technology, yes.