Was anonymity the death of Yahoo Answers?
Yahoo Answers is shutting down in just a couple weeks and with good reason. The questions used to be legitimate/clueless/embarrassing and the answers were thoughtful/honest/hilarious. But in the last few years it's been wall-to-wall conspiracy theories and hot political takes from anonymous users. If there were any level of personal identification, would it have lasted? Is anonymity to blame?
Answers ( 1 )
It is true that anonymity is an invitation for abuse of a platform and has to be carefully managed. It makes improper behavior thst much easier. However, I don't that real names would have solved the problems that YA had.
Long Term Problems
YA had earned a terrible reputation over the years because it was plauged with a frat party atmosphere. At this party was a lot foolishness, insanity, incorrect information, wild guessing, and people saying outrageous and deliberately wrong things because they thought it was funny. If you wandered around enough, you'd run across two physics majors in the corner sharing accurate in-depth information, but it was generally drowned out by the people doing keg stands.
Many people were turned off by the foolishness and poor information so they stopped bothering to click on a search engine result if it led to YA. The question asker frequently chose something ridiculous as the best answer, either ironically or through deep ignorance. The average netizen might be unaware that there was some great information buried under all of the nonsense. I was one of those people. After few dozen times where I couldn't believe what I was seeing, I ignored the increasingly infrequent search results links that led there. Consequently I missed out on the (much too late) attempt Yahoo made to reign in the foolishness by using human moderation, which unfortunately backfired. Pretty much everyone who wanted good answers had long ago found much better platforms, so Yahoo annoyed the people remaining, many of whom largely enjoyed being at a frat party.
My Name Is Elon Musk. No, Really!
Unless a web platform actually verifies the identity of users, people can use fake names and stock photos with ease. They can create dozens of accounts, since it is easy to hide your IP address with a VPN. The people who sow discord absolutely revel in sockpuppetry.
Self Righteous Prophets Of Doom.
There are also true believers who honestly embrace the propaganda that they are spouting. They don't mind having their real name connected to the nonsense that they are propogating, even when it is hateful. If they are brought to task by a website that actually has standards and enforces them or they have difficulties with their employers, they don't accept the consequences of their choices but instead scream misguidedly about their First Amendment rights and bellow over "cancel culture!"
Hit 'Em In The Wallet
Charging a $5 per year (or even a one time membership fee) would slow down spammers and trolls who rely on having twenty accounts and sign up for a new one seconds after their old one is banned. People involved in criminal activity will be able to use stolen credit/debit card numbers, but the average troll won't be interested in continuing a hobby that racks up a price tag.