UPDATED: At last, have we no decency?

I'm a sometime blogger and pretty much constant reader of others' blogs, many of which are very classy and informative. Too many to name here, but that's not the point anyway. And I welcome an opportunity to offer comments and ideas or feedback.

But the ease with which comments can be made combined with anonymity is poisonous. I have no idea how many of what my favorite author calls "netwits" are really out there -- two or three really prolific nasties could be writing under hundreds of aliases, for all I know.

Some of the grown-up blogs have moderation rules, and/or encourage reports of abuse, but I have to say that in my most recent encounter with comments on Politico's coverage of John and Elizabeth Edwards' decision to keep the campaign going strong it became clear that there doesn't seem to be much hope other than simply not allowing comments at all.

If the goal of sites like Politico is truly to encourage dialogue, then I suggest that reader comments be subject to the same rules as letters to the editor, with real names used and confirmation available via email address.

Let the conversation be productive.

UPDATE: And now someone is actually trying to do something about it:

Now, a few high-profile figures in high-tech are proposing a blogger code of conduct to clean up the quality of online discourse. Link