Anonymous hate mail on Tumblr

[firecat88]

For those who don't know, I'm on Tumblr (my username is firecat88, just like here. Follow at your own risk. XD). I like it, but there's one thing I'm constantly seeing that just pisses me off. I see a lot of hate mail directed toward the people I follow, ranging from 'You're evil and wrong because you think XYZ' to 'You should go kill yourself now', and fully 95% of the stuff that I see is anonymous.

Granted, I do allow people to message me anonymously. However, I also have a disclaimer: If you choose to sneer and say unkind things to me, be polite enough to leave your name. If you do it anon, I will publicly respond and call you out for being a coward. Because that’s just what I do.

In my mind, spewing obscenities and such at a person under anon status auto-translates into "I'm a spineless jellyblob who fears retaliation for the fact that I'm trashing you for having an opinion that's not my own/calling you a worthless slut who needs to go cut yourself."

[Nekojin]

I'm sure you've seen this before. If not, enjoy.

[HYHYBT]

Partly depends on how anonymous "anonymous" is.

[firecat88]

Partly depends on how anonymous "anonymous" is.

If a person sends an ask or a submission, they have two options- Send it under their username or send anonymously. If they do the former, then what they send will be signed '-username' and link back to the person's blog. If they do the latter, it gets signed '-Anonymous' with no link back.

Apparently, though, it only hides the username and not the IP address. You can click the 'block' button as if it wasn't an anon and it'll block the IP entirely. Or so I've been told. Haven't needed to test that for myself.

[HYHYBT]

OK.

I ask because I was a bit thrown a couple months ago by someone elsewhere's complaint of my (totally not offensive anyway, at least to sane people) post being "anonymous" and basically calling me chicken for "hiding" behind a screen name. That I've been using consistently all over the place for fourteen years, and therefore there is no legitimate reason for another poster to want my real name.

[Hyena Dandy]

OK.

I ask because I was a bit thrown a couple months ago by someone elsewhere's complaint of my (totally not offensive anyway, at least to sane people) post being "anonymous" and basically calling me chicken for "hiding" behind a screen name. That I've been using consistently all over the place for fourteen years, and therefore there is no legitimate reason for another poster to want my real name.

There's still an anonymity though. Because I think what causes it isn't so much "They can find other things I've said" as "I probably won't have to deal with this person later." For all the using the same name for a million and ten years can do, you still probably won't run into whoever you insulted (not that YOU did, hypothetical you) in the grocery store or at church or school, or at a friend's party.

[firecat88]

OK.

I ask because I was a bit thrown a couple months ago by someone elsewhere's complaint of my (totally not offensive anyway, at least to sane people) post being "anonymous" and basically calling me chicken for "hiding" behind a screen name. That I've been using consistently all over the place for fourteen years, and therefore there is no legitimate reason for another poster to want my real name.

Oh yeah. My annoyance is definitely not about that. If you leave your username and I can discuss things calmly with you and eventually agree to disagree, that I'm ok with. It's hiding behind Tumblr's specific anon status that actually *says* "Anonymous" on what you send that pisses me off.

[Eisa]

And that is why I have anonymous asks turned off on my tumblr. I got the most horrific, disgusting message I have ever seen, hoping I got raped repeatedly was just the start of it...it got worse.

People suck.