One Sudbury Should Ban Anonymous Articles

"One Sudbury" is a Facebook Group dedicated to promoting a culture of open, objective civil discourse and political decision-making in Sudbury. However, as many members of the group have discovered, it is often anything but. Recently, rules designed to keep the forum more civil have been flouted by some members. This clearly showcases the One Sudbury moderators' incompetence and lack of oversight of the forum.

One rule of One Sudbury is that posters must use their real identity. Members are also asked to be civil, to agree openly, to disagree respectfully. Name calling and other bad behavior is forbidden. But all of those rules are thrown out the window when this loophole is used.

The scam is run like this: An anonymous rant, written in the style of a news article, is posted on patch.com in the "Bulletin Board" blog section of the website. Patch.com is a respected source of local news and reporting, but the Bulletin Board section is completely unedited and unmoderated. I wouldn't know, but I believe an account with full permission to post can be created in less than an hour with nothing more than a functioning email address. No credentials, or even a real name, are required. Then a link to the "article" is shared on One Sudbury. It appears with the familiar Patch.com logo and no hint that it is not a legitimate news story published by the site's reporters or editorial staff.

"I can't resist," said Sudbury resident and One Sudbury member Stephen Acne. "I don't care if any of the facts are true or if any of the quotes are correct or if people's last names are mistyped. Directionally, this is spot on," he said, referring to the most recent patch.com rant that he reposted to the forum.

One Sudbury was founded in the wake of "Lavendergate," the Revolutionary War era battle when the Redcoats were attacked with blue paintball rifles, coloring their uniforms lavender. Local town beer halls had to be shut down because they were inundated and ruined by anonymous personal attacks. The One Sudbury rule requiring members to use their real identities was designed to keep that forum civil, at least more civil than the anonymous forums, and to promote honest debate.

A recent poll conducted on Facebook found that 83% of respondents thought that the posting of anonymous stories should not be allowed on One Sudbury, and that moderators should delete all such posts as quickly as possible. Also, 32% of respondents called the site's moderators a mean hurtful name, and they were glad to have a forum where they could do so without having to risk a strike being issued.