Yelp forced to give up the names of people posting negative comments about a business (so that they can be sued). This will change a lot of things in the near future I think. People will second guess “trolling” people and businesses.
C4
This has been going on for a while, in terms of Facebook/myspace/twitter/etc.
Anyone can be sued for defamation, especially when it “hurts” a business’s reputation. Also happened more than a few times for “cyber bullying” and similar offenses.
Anonymous trolling has its place, on sites like 4chan/reddit/etc, but on website that people take seriously it can have real world negative repercussions for a business or a person.
Agree. I think you are going to start to see more business sue to get names of people that are doing it.
C4
G&R Tactical Sucks!
Nah nah nah nah nahhhhh!
; )
I am on the fence about this. That being said, I typically don’t say anything on the net that I wouldn’t have the stones to say to man’s face.
ETA: Clarification -
My issue regarding the anonymity factor, is that, in a world the internet makes small, having your name out there can afford some nut job a lot of material to work with. A buddy of mine ended up getting a stalker at his house; the guy found his subdivision on Google Earth, recognized from a YouTube video.
You can crack open a person’s privacy with the power of the internet in minutes.
LOL, ya we are married and know that we suck everyday (as our wife tells us). 
I do agree with you. If you cannot say it to the persons face, you probably shouldn’t say it online. I try my best to follow this rule. I am sometime blown away by what people will say to me online, but when I see them in public, they are as quiet as a church mouse. This always makes me laugh.
My issue regarding the anonymity factor, is that, in a world the internet makes small, having your name out there can afford some nut job a lot of material to work with. A buddy of mine ended up getting a stalker at his house; the guy found his subdivision on Google Earth, recognized from a YouTube video.
You can crack open a person’s privacy with the power of the internet in minutes.
I am fully with you about the name thing. Imagine though a private forum where everyone had to put their full name, address and phone number in their bio. Only other members could see this info (BTW). How much would this change how people interact on the net??
C4
Too true.
I think the internet would be a kinder, gentler place. Anonymity works like psychological SAPI plates.
It’s a catch-22, to a large extent. Disclosure breeds better behavior, and you’ve gotta own what you say more; but you are also out there for the entire internet freakshow to take advantage of.
I think there’s a time and a place for a good bad-mouthing, but, you put it in writing - it’s yours. Whether it’s on yelp, or a document you signed.
I’ve always had the policy that if I get burned on a deal, I don’t give repeat business.
Internet business reviews are a piss poor source of information. I had a Shitbird rip me off on ebay, and the guy would’ve bitched if I paid him to buy my stuff. There ain’t no pleasing everybody, and you’re ALWAYS going to get “that guy” as a customer or client.
I would be cool with an internet where everyone knew who everyone else was. If the freak shows had their info out there too it would lessen the issues mentioned above. This is impossible however.
This assumes their whole e-identity isn’t a Potemkin Village all the way down. And then they are going to be going to the ISP and chasing IPs.
Assuming they aren’t using a proxy.
If somebody really wants to be anonymous, they can certainly make it hard enough that short of national level resources, it is a practical impossibility to discover their ID.
My wife is currently going through something similar. She recently had to terminate an employee. Now said former employee is creating bogus accounts on LinkedIn, et al. and cyber stalking her. Said former employee has filed bogus complaints against her and her company with the BBB. Her attorney is now involved and they are pursuing said former employee to the furthest extent of the law.
Anonymity has its pros and cons. On one hand, if a business is good, the majority feedback should be good regardless of whether or not the person posts under their name or a user name. Also, if a business is truly bad or dishonest, a person should have the ability to report it to others who want to know the honest truth about it without fearing some kind of retaliation. On the other hand…well, that’s already been discussed; false accusations and defamation when a person can’t be identified.
It really looks like the age of internet anonymity is coming to an end. There are very few news, review, or entertainment sites where one can still sign up under a user name or post as a guest. Most require you to use your Twitter account, Facebook profile, or Google profile.
And it is absolutely no trouble to create a fake Facebook Profile, Google Profile or Twitter Account.
The main reason they are requiring those is it makes signing up and posting far easier than maintain a separate account for each site.
That’s true, but even those sites are more intrusive (which will no doubt lead to an exodus). Facebook and Google have been asking for people’s phone numbers “to secure their account” and it’s optional now, but you know it’ll be mandatory in the next year or so. I did try and create an anonymous account mostly because, well, I don’t want my name out there for EVERYONE to see. I forget which site it was, but when I tried to register, it denied me and asked that I scan a copy of my driver’s license and email it to them for confirmation.
But there is a big difference between getting to the bottom of a person who is acting like that and doing something illegal, and a company trying to go after peole who didn’t like their product or service.
The issue is, if a person makes two accounts and posts negative feedback about a certain business. The first negative feedback may in fact be true real world experience, but the second may be “trolling” and by definition defamation.
Gunbroker hit me with this one and I didn’t care enough about joining the site to go that far. The same will go for any other public/private forum or online marketplace that requires that kind of personal info. If I can’t control or verify just where that information is going or where its being stored then it’s not worth it for me.
I have been an online dealer since 2001. I have learned that I could hand some people a bar of Gold and they would complain (online).
If you are man enough to bad mouth someone or a company, then be man enough to sign your real name. Only cowards hide behind fake screen names (ya I said it).
C4
I remember when Vector was upset by a gun review I did about their product and they informed me that the only reason they weren’t going to sue me is because technically everything I said was accurate and I posted pictures to back up my comments.
Generally a bad call - if it was affecting traffic or usefulness of the website, then anonymity would have been removed. If yelp and the like cared to, they could do some magical thing called masking the results from non-verified users; if you do enough business online, you’ll get negative comments, exactly like Grant just mentioned. What amazes me is people willing to put faith into anonymous and unsubstantiated media of any kind, but then again, if people were clever enough to ignore this, where would be no Democratic party…
Just for the record, those of us who use handles and not our real names may have other considerations which require anonymity, such as mil, le or gov connections.
In the Yelp case, the people leaving bad reviews of the company had NEVER used the product! I think that is entirely fair for that company to sue those people and I hope they run them into the ground.
Many (as in 98%) of anonymous “bad reviews” come from people simply regurgitating something they heard or read (not from any first hand experience).
C4