Would you pay to leave a comment on a blog? Even a nominal fee? What about a nominal fee specifically designed to reveal your identity?

The identity part would appeal to insane Scottish blogger Cllr Terry Kelly (unlinked, Google for ‘arse‘ to find his site), and the fee part would appeal to Corrugated Soundbite, GrumpyOldTwat, BarkingSpider and others who could make a small fortune charging everyone who linked “Terry Kelly” and “weapons grade cock” in the same sentence.

But, daft though it may sound, the Massachusetts-based Sun Chronicle is going to do just that:

…..the fee is minimal – a one-off charge of 99 cents. But this fee must be paid by credit card and that means providing a real name and address. And the name on the credit card is the name that will appear on comments. At the same time, the comment poster must acknowledge that they will abide by US state and federal law and that they are legally responsible for any content they post.


The Sun Chronicle had previously suspended commenting across its sites back in April and the publisher, the rather brilliantly named Oreste P D’Arconte, has said he hopes the move to stop anonymity would “eliminate past excesses that included blatant disregard for our appropriateness guidelines, blind accusations and unsubstantiated allegations”.


In the US, the argument goes that making people use their real name is an infringement of the right to free speech. People are fearful that it will make people afraid to express minority opinions. Which is true, but there is nothing to stop people from commenting anonymously at any number of other public forums – Mumsnet, for example, is a often hotbed of criticism of journalism about parenting.


Comments – even anonymous ones – equal engagement and for publishers (and even writers who are taking a pasting), a high number of responses is the sign that an article is a success.


Widespread adoption of such a policy would no doubt be welcomed by journalists who’ve experienced the stinging feeling that one harsh comment leaves – even if its couched between a dozen positive ones.


And there generally seems to be a feeling that losing anonymous web identities is the path to meaningful dialogue. I imagine more publishers will be testing out similar systems in the near future.

Don’t think so, sunshine. This idea will go down like a bucket of cold vomit.