In reply to Offwidth:
> The dislike button problem IMHO is nothing like as bad as the abuse of anonymity and of course overlaps with it.
The dislike button is the same thing. It's the opportunity to take a trivial little swipe at someone without even risking your anonymous alias/ pseudonym or whatever you call it. In its way the 'like' button is even worse as it trivialises things - it conjures up the phenomenon of likehunters who then compete with each other to say glib inane things, post pictures of cute cats or claim they climbed an E5 stark bollock naked (not sure what kind of like/ dislike response that one will get if ever those pics get posted on UKC).
> Small groups know each other on UKC and it's clear they hold back in the tone of critique amongst friends. Its not just anonymity though... some named/known posters at times express levels of anger I suspect they would never do in real life...we all need to ask ourselves would we say this face to face to a stranger in a pub before we post?.
You don't drive a car or motorbike or ride a pushbike even then?
> The other channel has less bile on view and needs less moderation I think partly as a lot more people there know each other (as well as karma having a better effect than likes and dislikes). I'd rather the UKC site went back to more of a community feel (as it once was and it is still on the other side) and dislikes don't help in my view.
As a 'drive-by' person myself, though punter rather than troll, I don't even know what 'the other channel' is. Care to enlighten me?
But you haven't addressed my point. UKC is just like what the norm was 10 or more years ago, pre MySpace and then Facebook. These petty agressions you describe were just par for the course in those kinds of forum and anonymity was a large part of that. However, I'm beginning to learn that UKC is very different in one specific area, which combined with that anonymity makes matters worse in an entirely predictable and understandable way. But anyway, why are you personally 'in the closet'..?