Triond's Major Flaw

While I was reading about Triond's latest update today, I ran across some comments that uncovered Triond's major flaw.  It seems that people have been impersonating others through the comment section.  I've always thought that it was odd that the name portion of the comments was not automatically filled in.  I used to think that maybe it was a good thing because then you could comment on another's work without fear of retribution.  Most users of Triond are very friendly, supportive, encouraging, creative, and clever.  I've unfortunately discovered that this is not always the case.

I read an interesting article recently by one of my Triond friends, Liane Schmidt entitled Why Deleting Comments Does a Writer Good.  In this article she details the differences between constructive and destructive criticisms.  She relates instances where she has deleted a reader's comments from her work and how this has helped her to maintain her writing inspirations. I have read dozens and dozens of these delete-able comments on writer's works.

These readers who feel inclined to write such childish comments should have their words deleted.  You'll notice on comments such as these, the name is only "Jim" or "Suzy".  They rarely, if ever, provide their actual name.  In one of my articles, a reader made some very immature comments on the style of my writing as compared to his.  Shockingly, he wrote his real name.  When I checked out his work, it was just as I thought -- he was clearly jealous of the level of success I have achieved here on Triond.  His work was subpar and although he claimed to be writing novels, that was clearly not the case.  This is important to remember writers: these comment writers are intimidated by your success, by your writing abilities.  If they were not, they would not stoop so low as to make these sorts of comments.  I agree with Liane -- sometimes deleting comments does do a writer good.

These recent incidents of impersonations go beyond petty and immature comments though.  It is unbelievable to me that Triond would allow people to ruin people's good names through the anonymous capability of the comment button.  This major flaw of Triond could become the fatal flaw if it is not corrected soon.  No one will be able to take any comments seriously -- all comments will be viewed with suspicion and distrust.  Comments should be used for constructive criticisms, for positive comments, for agreeing or disagreeing with the writer, for ideas and more information about the topic in question.  Triond really needs to take a firm stand against people who would sink so low as to use another writer's good name.  There is no reason why the comments should be able to be used anonymously any longer.  This loophole must be shut!

Feel free to leave comments in your own name below and help me take a stand against those users out there who are abusing the system.

UPDATE:

Triond administrator's have responded to this situation with the following:

"In regards to comment fraud, we have isolated the person who is posting fraudulent remarks and are working on resolving potential abuse within our commenting system. Please know that Triond’s features, including comments, are a valuable part of our community. We hope that every individual represents themselves openly and honestly. Please know that we can and will track down offending users and take the appropriate action to warn, ban, and if necessary, delete accounts."

Best,
Kim

UPDATE PART 2:

You'll now notice that beneath the comment section you can check a box to post your comment along with your Triond credentials.  If you click it, you have to enter your user name and password.  This should thwart most cases of comment fraud.

Thanks Triond!  Great move!!