This past week, I’ve run across a couple of blog posts talking about anonymity on the web, especially as it pertains to the expression of opinions (whether through comments, message board posts, or mediums of online expression). James D. Robinson III of RRE Ventures linked to a post (including a video) entitled “Are the Trolls Destroying the Internet?” and Mark Suster of GRP Partners posted specifically about “Some Tips to Improve the Civility on Hacker News.”
I won’t try to rehash those two articles here, since they’re expressed well enough in their original form, but I definitely think they’re worth reading yourself! In addition to that, I was reminded again today about the culture of anonymity when Chris Dixon tweeted that he would be answering Formspring questions for an hour or so.
For those of you who may not know, Formspring.me essentially allows a user to create a personalized site where the user’s friends / acquaintances can ask questions anonymously, which the user can then answer. Formspring’s tag line is: “Ask questions, give answers and learn more about your friends.” While I created my Formspring awhile ago, I never really solicited questions from friends because it reminded me a little bit of the Twitter-ish narcissistic vibe.
However, after reading through Chris Dixon’s Formspring Q&A, a thought came to me: I realized that to some extent, you can learn just as much about the people asking questions as the person answering the questions. The types of questions asked, I found, were often just as interesting as the answers given. With the tables turned (and feeling a bit curious about what types of questions my friends might ask) I decided to give it a shot.
So ask me a question (any question!) but don’t think too long or hard about it. Just shoot me whatever’s on your mind, and assuming that it’s not NSFW-inappropriate, I’ll give you a quick answer. Should be an interesting exercise!
P.S. If you’re curious and want to set up your account, it only takes 60 seconds.
