While web 2.0 does turn the internet into more of a community, turning every website into a social network, it isn’t without its negatives. One of them, there is no common identity system yet, so everytime you goto a website, you have to sign up and validate an account everytime you goto a website. This kinda leads to the second negative. Those who take the time to sign up and comment on sites seem to only be the jerks and cynical.
Logging onto any web2.0 site and reading the comments leads to frustration as there tends to be a balance of 25% positive or informed posters and %75 jerks. I think if there were a unified login for all web2.0 sites, people would be more willing to take the time to post, rather than doing as I do, and avoiding most comment threads because there isn’t anything worth reading.
I have seen articles on popular websites where someone could die and there would be one person saying that they will be missed, but 5 or 6 saying it was about time. And the cynicism doesn’t stop there. Read an article about a black person committing a crime, or getting suspended from a sports team and prepare for racial slurs. Read a story on religion, and prepare to hear blasphemes. People have no scruples when their opinion is accepted and published anonymously for the world to see.
The good news is, where discretion is used by posters, comments can add to, or even be better than the original story. There just has to be a universal login that can be carried from page to page, forum to forum, and make posting positive additions to content easier, so that the informed posters will self police the communities. Windows Live Passport anyone?
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2 Comments to 'Web 2.0 Breeds Cynicism, Needs Uniform IDs'
November 3, 2008
I’m not a fan of the Passport system; I suggest you look to OpenID as a possible solution to the sign-up issue. Although honestly, I don’t believe any universal login system will stauch the flow of idiotic, uninformed or otherwise objectionable posts. Furthermore, no matter how upsetting it may be to view such comments, the Internet is and should remain a place where anyone is free to express their opinions.
So, I also respectfully disagree with the idea of “informed posters” who “police” communities.
One final thought: I find it ironic that I had to register in order to post this comment!
(Again, OpenID would be a great solution to that problem. Here is the URL to a WordPress plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/openid/)
November 3, 2008
OpenID is a good idea, but the problem is, with web 2.0, every site has a comment thread and OpenID isn’t the standard. There should be some sort of standard to implement OpenID on community based sites by default. As you pointed out, blogs all over the internet have comment threads that require signing up to post to them as well. This was an oversight on my part however in my haste to change to wordpress from my previous blog. I like those sites where you merely enter your username, email, url, etc as you post, but they are few and far between.
EXCELLENT COMMENT by the way.
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