Reviewers Anonymous

Oh, too funny. A co-worker and I once took a permanent Sharpie marker to a sign with numerous misspellings - we weren't even stealthy about it. We borrowed the Sharpie from someone who worked for the same vendor who caters the lunchroom, who owns the sign. They were sort of taken aback, but amused, when they saw us correcting all the errors. We simply snapped - what can I say? We felt much better having "fixed" things.

As for Anonymous... I've had as many good things come to me from good ol' Anonymous as bad. And I've generally been able to drag confessions of identity out of Anon., once by saying "Wow, looks like you're having a bad day and needed to take it out on someone. Glad I could help. If you need to talk, email me." They apologized for the hit-and-run one-star rating, and said that yes, they'd had a lousy rotten day and shouldn't have taken it out on me.

I've sent Anonymous reviews, but rarely. I do it to gauge the reaction I'm going to get to a critical review, if something in the author's port leads me to believe they might be irrational or hostile in response. Chicken? Sometimes. No - I'm just not always in the mood for a fight. This is particularly true of political or religious rants disguised as essays. If they respond with courtesy, I'll return another time and not review anonymously. (I may or may not tell them right then and there who I am.) Or maybe I want to send GPs to someone I know will just return them with a few extras, first chance they get. I don't want to give them a way to return them to me, but rather to use them towards an upgrade or to "pay it forward" by sending them on to someone else. I don't want them to feel they need to reciprocate.

The first upgrade I ever got here was a three-month upgrade from Anonymous. I used to be totally creeped out by anonymous reviews, having had bad experiences on other sites. But the thing to remember here is that Anonymous is never truly anonymous to Staff members. If Anon. is ever abusive, they know who it is and can take the appropriate action.