Yesterday someone left a comment on my blog.  I did not publish it.  The reason being that the contributor was anonymous.  There was a name, the same name as on a Twitter profile, but there is no real person named on it.  I choose not to engage with such Twitter profiles.  It’s been proven that some people use multiple profiles, they use these profiles to make it look as if others agree with them when there is a debate going on.

Sadly when a, to be frank, fake account is being used people tend to lose responsibility for what they post.   A myriad of nasty, vicious, ad hom comments fly off their Twitter pages, the fake accounts have been seen to get into cahoots with each other and subject individuals to a catalogue of unpleasantness.

I’ve been there myself, and it’s gone beyond Twitter.  I have been subjected to blog posts attempting to ridicule me, but not only me, also my wife, my parish and my diocese. While these have all been deleted I am yet to receive an apology.  There have also been parody Twitter profiles of me and my wife.  One of me had an utterly obscene name and another, of my wife, depicted her as a pig.  Hence I think anyone will understand me not responding.  I always explain my motive to the authors, if they are genuine, and have genuine reasons to be anonymous I honour that.  If they tell me who they are, I go with it entirely.  There are pseudonymous accounts I do engage with but I know who they are and there is never an issue with unkindness from them.

I have been unkind on Twitter, dreadful in fact.  In this matter I had been less than attentive  to my clerical state.  But to all those I have offended, I have apologised.  There have been those I have argued with, and to those people I have offered an olive branch.  Would I have felt inclined to accept responsibility for the upset I caused if people didn’t know who I was?  Probably.  Would I have apologised or just vanished?  I have to admit, most likely the latter.  But I did not, I did what decency dictates.

If anyone wants to contribute to my small, amateur, insignificant, silly little blog, they can do, but in their own name, not a micky-mouse cowardly fake one.