Comments on: Will transparency make us boring?

By: Chris Grayson

Chris Grayson — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 02:34:23 +0000

I make special note of the irony that the person posting above me in favor of “no secrets”, basically elimination of all privacy in all domains of our lives, is the only person so far to post anonymously.

There are matters of personal privacy that are nobody’s business– No nefarious intent required. So you think the government should be allowed to tap all our phone lines and place cameras in our bedrooms? Nobody should care unless they have something evil to hide, right? Incredibly naive.

There are times for the brutal candor that often only anonymity affords, and times to tread delicately on the feelings of others. There are also people and organizations that, for their own agendas, may well wish to do you harm: perhaps they disagree with your religious beliefs or political views, or simply want a competitive business advantage.

Russell’s point is well taken.

By: FTLNewsFeed

FTLNewsFeed — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 23:22:13 +0000

Personally I think that secrets only hurt us by breeding distrust. Why do we need “confidentiality in personal friendships” — if we can’t be open with our friends then do they truly know us? And if they are telling us secrets then we only end up lying for them. We make light of marriages built on secrets and lies and state they are a good thing while all evidence points to the opposite. No, I think that complete transparency and telling the truth is a good thing.

By: Paul Raven

Paul Raven — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:59:11 +0000

Thing is, Peter, most of the comments you describe are the anonymous ones. Imagine for a moment that every comment box printed up the IP address of the commenter, and a database used that to drag up the real name of the commenter* – that would be true transparency, and as a result I don’t think you’d get quite so much trolling of the sort you describe.

*Yeah, this is a flawed scenario, but I use it only to illustrate a general point.

By: Peter Tupper

Peter Tupper — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:58:00 +0000

I don’t think transparency will make us boring. Look at the percentage of online communication that is insulting, vicious, jingoistic, simpleminded, xenophobic, paranoid, or any combination of the above, and it sure isn’t boring. I don’t think transparency will make us more thoughful, either.