Restaurants vs. Bloggers

[Pan]

Interesting remarks by Jason Perlow on his website, Off The Broiler:

"I'm With Mario"

Here's what I would consider the most controversial excerpt:

[...]I have always felt that posters on food boards and blogs that were unwilling to disclose their true identity do so primarily because of their fear of repercussions — losing their job, receiving nastygrams from libel attorneys, or facing public ridicule. A few are in the minority of having genuine concerns about stalkers and their privacy. To those people I say, please get the hell off public bulletin boards or refrain from blogging. You can’t have your cake and throw it at the restaurant too — while being concerned about whackos tracking you down. That’s a risk that my wife and I live with every day of our lives.[...]

My feeling is that no-one needs to actually know my full name -- let alone my address and telephone number -- to judge my posts, because I'm at least registered under a unique identity, and furthermore, my posts speak for themselves. To give one salient example that comes to my mind (and not with any idea of singling him out for any other purpose than an example for the sake of argument):

I consider someone like Raji very credible, and I have no idea whether "Raji" is actually any part of his name or what the other part is; I've simply followed his posts, believe what he's said about himself, and believe that he is posting in good faith and with as much accuracy as he can. Why should he expose himself to wackos by posting all his personal information here, if he prefers not to?

[Salli Vates]

Docsconz, I don't believe we've had the pleasure of meeting! Hi there.

[dcress]

My feeling is that no-one needs to actually know my full name -- let alone my address and telephone number -- to judge my posts, because I'm at least registered under a unique identity, and furthermore, my posts speak for themselves. T

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I feel the same way, Pan. Just b/c someone posts under a pseudonym does not mean they're anonymous. The internet has redefined the concept. To those on this board (the ones, arguably, to whom your opinion means something) your criticism is unique and identifiable.

[tb86]

I think alot of chefs have no problem with bloggers,,,, the big gripe with the online stuff is that there is often little to no research done, facts arent checked, these "food critics" or whatever they want to call themselves, go with rumor,,,,, lets be honest alot of the time they are wrong, sometimes they flat out lie,,,,,,, this is true of at least one major nyc food site,,,,