Home Current News News Archive Shop/Advertise Ridecamp Classified Events Learn/AERC
Endurance.Net Home Ridecamp Archives
ridecamp@endurance.net
[Archives Index]   [Date Index]   [Thread Index]   [Author Index]   [Subject Index]

[RC] Complaints and anonymity - k s swigart

Heidi said:

I respect your right to an opinion, but by golly, I've never seen
Lynne post something that she didn't own up to by signing her name.

This is, of course, by definition true.  If Lynne (or anybody else) were
to post something anonymously, nobody would ever know.

For all we know, THESE comments are from Lynne :) :) :).  Which may be
why Lynne knows who it is. :).

The problem, of course, with anonymous reports is that they must, by
their very nature, be heavily discounted.  No report can be completely
understood, or given credence, without taking into consideration the
point of reference.  As Einstein (generally speaking) demonstrated in
his theory of relativity, that the same thing can be measured
differently simply by having a different point of view and can only be
measured in relation (which is why it is called "relativity") to each
other (e.g. despite the fact that my computer monitor is hurtling
through space, relative to the sun, at a phenominal rate of speed, don't
ask me what it is, to ME it looks stationary because I am hurtling
through space, relative to the sun, at the same speed).

It makes virtually NO sense to give credence to ANY observation unless
you know the reference point of the observer.  And while this anonymous
observer has given some clues as to reference point (e.g. s/he has
claimed to have been AT the ride, although, this, too, might be total
fabrication and there is no way to validate it), anonymity, by its very
nature will lead almost everybody to discount those observations (and
rightly so).

People who post anonymously are ASKING to have their
observations/opinions discounted to the extent that their points of view
are unidentifiable.

This does not, however, mean that every "ride evaluation" must be
identified by name, just that the recipient of the evaluation is
perfectly entitled to (and probably ought to)take any such comments with
a grain of salt.

The advantage of distributing and collecting evaluation forms AT a ride,
is that you are fairly well assured of the form coming from somebody who
actually DID attend the ride.  If the form can be filled out afterwards
online, it is entirely possible that the form was completed and
submitted by somebody who didn't attend the ride at all, but heard about
it third hand from somebody whose friend's cousin read about it in an
anonymous post to Ridecamp :).

AND it is also possible that all of the anonymous evaluations (even if
they aren't the same) to come from the same person who thought it would
be cute or funny to yank somebody's chain in this way. :)  Very easy to
"stuff the ballot box" so to speak.

Unless anonymous evaluations contain some constructive evaluation that
bears some resemblance to some identifiable source's observation of what
happened, or might have happened, it is perfectly reasonable to entirely
discount them (in fact, it is a little unreasonable NOT to :)).

kat
Orange County, Calif.


============================================================
REAL endurance is your water freezing IN the cantle bags!
~ Heidi Sowards

ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/

============================================================