Peggy Noonan Makes the Case for Ricochet
Okay, not in so many words, but her column in the weekend WSJ is a good reminder of the value of Ricochet. The subject of Noonan's column is the double standard regarding sexist remarks; namely, they're funny when directed at conservative women, but when directed at poor Sandra Fluke, they're worse than anything dreamed up by Josef Goebbels.
Noonan sharply attacks liberals for their hypocrisy, but she also concedes a general coarsening in our public discourse. A big reason for this, she says, is the Internet. "When anyone can say anything," she points out, "anyone will." She concludes that the Internet "has helped set a new cultural tone. It is not a higher one than we enjoyed in the past." Reading this, I found myself shouting (to my wife's embarrasment): "But what about Ricochet?" We have members who pay for the privilege of engaging in civilized conversation. We have spirited debates, but we also have a Code of Conduct that is enforced. Can somebody please tell Peggy that there is at least one oasis of civility, right here on the Inter-web thingy.
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Dec '10
Re: Peggy Noonan Makes the Case for Ricochet
I believe this concept was once covered by the term "civil society."
Aug '10
Re: Peggy Noonan Makes the Case for Ricochet
What an antiquated idea. Get with the times, man.
Re: Peggy Noonan Makes the Case for Ricochet
Dear Mrs. Freedman,
On behalf of your husband, one of our best-loved contributors here at Ricochet, would you accept my apologies? Online, he behaves. In your home? Forgive him his lapses.
Sincerely,
Peter Robinson
Edited on March 17, 2012 at 9:20pmSep '11
Re: Peggy Noonan Makes the Case for Ricochet
The issue of anonymity in online communities has been discussed ad nauseum since online communities first appeared in the 1980s. CompuServe, one of the successful online communities, allowed independent vendors to create forums--and a forum could require users to use their legal names (the name on the credit card they paid with) or not.
It didn't take long to recognize that forums that did not permit the use of "handles" were dramatically more civil places. In geek speak (and anybody who was on CompuServe was a stone geek) forums that did not permit anonymity had a dramatically higher signal-to-noise ratio than forums that did not. (And even then, every forum post included your CompuServe ID--so it didn't require a master's degree to figure out that "BubbaLove (71507,1212)" on GO POLITICS was the same person as "John Murdoch (71507,1212)" on GO MSLANG.)
As much as limiting comments to people that have paid, the tone on Ricochet is established by the comparatively large number of people who post using their real names. (I write recognizing that the first two comments on this post are by people using pseudonyms.)
Dec '10
Re: Peggy Noonan Makes the Case for Ricochet
Perhaps, perhaps not. I think the quality of people on Ricochet has more to do with 1) the entrance barrier of a membership fee, 2) the general group from which Ricochet draws, and 3) ownership/community ambiance associated with the first two. There are plenty of places for people who just want to poke others with a sharpened stick. Ricochet offers a safe haven for those not so keen on being poked but who still want to communicate with others.
Feb '11
Re: Peggy Noonan Makes the Case for Ricochet
John Murdoch:.....
As much as limiting comments to people that have paid, the tone on Ricochet is established by the comparatively large number of people who post using their real names. (I write recognizing that the first two comments on this post are by people using pseudonyms.) · 18 minutes ago
I prefer to respond to someone who uses their real name. It seems that a picture going with the name is even more honest.
Mar '11
Re: Peggy Noonan Makes the Case for Ricochet
I post under a pseudonym, but have been fairly open about my real name, have revealed it to many of the members here, and there is a link to the real me on my profile page should anyone become so bored that they just gotta know who I am. I say all this because I know I am pugnacious by nature and it does help to have a bit of "I know who you are" accountability to keep my verbal riffing in check. In my defense, I'm equally obnoxious in person.
Mar '11
Re: Peggy Noonan Makes the Case for Ricochet
Steven Zoraster
John Murdoch:.....
As much as limiting comments to people that have paid, the tone on Ricochet is established by the comparatively large number of people who post using their real names. (I write recognizing that the first two comments on this post are by people using pseudonyms.) · 18 minutes ago
I prefer to respond to someone who uses their real name. It seems that a picture going with the name is even more honest. · 58 minutes ago
Sorry but that's the real me. I could put up a picture of my owner but he recently switched me to a cheap, generic brand of dog food so I don't think he deserves the recognition.
Apr '11
Re: Peggy Noonan Makes the Case for Ricochet
Who has more coarsened our culture than a man that votes for infanticide, and Peggy Noonan voted for him--talk to the hand.
Dec '11
Re: Peggy Noonan Makes the Case for Ricochet
There was a demand for civility on the internet, and the market provided it.
Oct '11
Re: Peggy Noonan Makes the Case for Ricochet
Nerds. We were stone nerds. Ozzy Osborne is a geek. (Or he was, back when he could still take solid food.)
The creative tension of the internet revolves around anonymity. It would have never become so pervasive so fast had it not fostered anonymity, yet the absence of online identity is at the root of everything disagreeable about it. Spam, porn, DailyKos - would any of these rise beyond an annoyance without anonymity?
(Admire my sly word choice there, "pervasive" subtly priming the association with "perverted" in this context. Am I a stone psycho-linguistic nerd, or what?)
Ricochet tunes the balance well. The freedom of relative anonymity is channeled by the benign influence of a self-selecting community, an intelligently enforced code of conduct, and a symbolic entry barrier.
Mar '12
Re: Peggy Noonan Makes the Case for Ricochet
Is there an irony here? Noonan blames the internet for the decline of civility. I wonder if part of the reason is the the Left has attacked standards relentlessly and ruthlessly. Standards are means of judgment, and judgment, by nature, implies inequlaity--right and wrong/ better and worse, etc.The Left tries to escape this by pretending that equality is their standard. But as Henry Adams said of modern philosophy at the start of the 20th century "the result was as chaotic as kinetic gas."This side of the story become obvoius whenever conservatives try to hold the Left to the standard it claims to uphold. The standard is not a neutral rule. To the Left it is a means of furthering their egalitarian project.
Dec '10
Re: Peggy Noonan Makes the Case for Ricochet
The King Prawn
Perhaps, perhaps not. I think the quality of people on Ricochet has more to do with 1) the entrance barrier of a membership fee, 2) the general group from which Ricochet draws, and 3) ownership/community ambiance associated with the first two. There are plenty of places for people who just want to poke others with a sharpened stick. Ricochet offers a safe haven for those not so keen on being poked but who still want to communicate with others. · 3 hours ago
Totally agree. On balance, we're a civil group, whatever we call ourselves. Plus, we have vocabularies that extend beyond the vulgar and banal. This also sets us apart.
Real names are good. Anonymity is OK too. For example, the pseudonym used by the author of "Poor Richard's Almanack," and the "Englishman" who wrote a pamphlet a couple hundred years ago called, oh, what was it, "Common Sense," I think . . .
I'm not sure why anyone would, but someone has compiled a book of 13,000 pseudonyms and their origins. Better hurry, there's only one left in stock.
By the way, the photo is real.
Feb '11
Re: Peggy Noonan Makes the Case for Ricochet
Well, I signed up here using only the initial of my surname, mostly out of habit. That's how I am most everyplace else.
But I buy the idea that real names are more appropriate to Ricochet, so I have released mine here for general use.
But I am keeping the photo, even though I lost the actual beard two months ago.
Edited on March 18, 2012 at 1:23amMar '11
Re: Peggy Noonan Makes the Case for Ricochet
Let's not get all hung up over using pseudonyms. I think they're kind of fun and as long as we stick to the CoC it's all good. I don't even mind if others poke at the margins of the CoC just to see how elastic they are (though I would never, ever do such a thing). We don't want to become a positive feedback loop either.
Aug '11
Re: Peggy Noonan Makes the Case for Ricochet
I have used a handle online for many years, mostly because I have seen the results of people who use their real names and advocate for conservatism. People have lost their jobs over this issue. I wouldn't want to either lose work or never be offered it because someone decided my politics did not agree with theirs.
Note that a handle need not result in the person being a bad actor. I consider my handle to be my internet brand. I use my handle for my URL. I would not say something from anonymity that I wouldn't say to someone who knew my name.
If I had sufficient wealth to not have to work again in my field, I might make a different choice.
Feb '12
Re: Peggy Noonan Makes the Case for Ricochet
I'm not really doc molloy but Dutton Peabody owner, publisher and editor of the Shinbone Star.. and he er, I, still sweeps the place out. Believe it or not. Avatars R Us..
May '11
Re: Peggy Noonan Makes the Case for Ricochet
Sigh. Is this the same Peggy Noonan that publicly disparaged Sarah Palin? Is this the same brilliant Peggy Noonan that supported Obama? Is this the same deluded Peggy Noonan, that could not see the mean-spritidness of the left embodied by President Obama?
I cannot determine what surprises me more, (i) people at Ricochet take Peggy Noonan seriously, or (ii) dear old Peggy emerged from the bubble to notice our President and the left has a vicious streak a mile wide?
When Peggy Noonan publicly apologizes to conservatives and Sarah Palin, after crawling through 50 fifty of hot coals, I'll consider her deep thoughts on "civility."
Nov '10
Re: Peggy Noonan Makes the Case for Ricochet
In an online community, the impact of one's personality, when regularly and consistently given voice, transcends the relative attempts at humor/irony/symbolism/anonymity one might be seeking to accomplish via the use of a pseudonym. Whomever one may be in real life, in this environment, we are who we present ourselves to be. Real names or not. Case in point, Flownover. He is a man living in Missouri. Right in the middle of Flyover country. That name is a statement unto itself. I dare anyone to challenge his sincerity. Or accuse him of being less than committed to the cause just because he doesn't use his real name.
May '10
Re: Peggy Noonan Makes the Case for Ricochet
The Internet has given us the freedom to all think for ourselves. Prior to it we were just supposed to accept what the media told us. We are now armed with unlimited and uncensored information and it has screwed the MSM. Why is it that the first thing autocrats do when they want to control their populace is to shut down the Internet? The Internet is freedom. The Left uses it to wage their nasty, vile screaming fights and they have created an ugly, hideous art form with it. Look at the Tea Party. Look at the Occupy dirt bags. It's the Left that needs to rein in their vitriol. Patty Noonan, who voted for Obama, doesn't get it.
There's a reason Obama wants to control the Internet. Sure, it can be abused...just like everything else. But, it's freedom.