Even when you’re scarfing down a cup of noodles in some far off Houston suburb, you’re never quite alone. Across the social media aether, and specifically on Facebook’s large and small neighborhood foodie pages, there are colorful discussions ongoing about eating.
But don’t you dare be anonymous.
Last year, Meta, Facebook’s parent company, rolled out a nicknames feature for groups. Instead of using their real names, people could use a nickname to post comments and photos anonymously. It’s not unlike Reddit. However, group mods have had their fair share of trouble in the year since it’s been implemented.
Albert Nurick, creator of the Woodland Area Foodies group, toggled off the nicknames feature last week. Nurick told Chron the veil of anonymity had become too much of an opportunity for bad behavior.
“I appreciate the value of anonymity online, even in a group like ours that thankfully doesn’t deal with abuse issues,” Nurick said. “Most often we see anonymity used when gathering info for surprise events, or to post negative reviews without getting blowback.”
Nurick said, in some instances, he had identified restaurant employees using a nickname to badmouth their competition. They’d either write negative reviews or try to advertise their business in posts about other restaurants.
Jennifer Lopez Fuller, creator of Bay Area Houston Food Lovers, said she also recently turned off nicknames but hasn’t made up her mind on anonymous posting. Right now, some users are reaching out to her directly to post on their behalf—essentially more work on her plate.
“So a lot of times they have family members in the group who they are throwing surprise parties for and asking information about cakes, and other times it’s a spouse asking for anniversary recommendations, etc.,” Fuller said.
John Frels, creator of the Houston Heights Foodies group and other inner Loop community pages, simply doesn’t have time for it.
“People just don’t know how to write well these days,” Frels said. “They don’t realize that people can’t hear how it sounds in their head when they’re writing it.”
Dining and Cooking