Commenter with similar names
I came across an interesting problem in the blogosphere yesterday. Patrick Madrid wrote this blog about a gushy article on Sen. Ted Kennedy's passing. A blog commenter(who apparently often posts on his site not in a malicious way) uses the username "Patrick" and claimed that he doubted that Sen. Kennedy repented of his pro-choice politics before death. Other users and some of the Media 1.0 crowd apparently attributed the comments to Patrick Madrid who's username is "Patrick Madrid" and rebuked him for it. Patrick Madrid clarified it was not him, but I can see this being a tricky situation. What is the best way to handle commenter usernames? Just let it fly or does the blog writer need to make sure they are not being impersonated. I guess another question that comes up from here, is how to prevent malicious commenters who post obscenely or who personally attack others?