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02/17/2008: "Free speech only occurs with anonymity"

The first few comments on the online WGRZ Buffalo Forum aimed some gentle sarcasm at the market's executive director and ruminated on the impact of KeyBank's departure. Then the racism started.

"The more it gets blacker, the more decay and cancer you get," wrote "James Z from Kaisertown."

Not every post targets blacks. The Orange County Register in California profiled an obese 40-year-old woman who didn't know she was pregnant until two days before she gave birth to her son.

This generally positive story drew a wave of false attacks from readers on the woman's purported laziness, unhealthy lifestyle and even claims that she made money off her story.

But that is what some online forums have become, where reasonable discussion can quickly degenerate into vile and nasty commentary — all behind a veil of anonymity.

[ No, that's what happens when you make it impossible to discuss certain issues in public. Stupid fat people who don't know they're pregnant are going to get skewered as well as insane racial policy. All the recommendations in the articles -- buy more software, hire monitors, force registration -- just raise costs for the newspaper and its readers, all for the pretense of hiding dissent. ]

http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/277483.html