On 31 May 2007 at 13:39:41 +0100, doc doc.wikipedia@ntlworld.com wrote:

How the hell did this piece of trolling get though? Moderators wake up!

Trolling it may be, but it seems to be a troll with a point... it does in fact seem to be true that, to prove that one has been libeled by a site that engages in "outing" an editor and stating alleged personal facts about him/her, one would have to "out" oneself, in order to prove that they're actually the named individual (and have standing for a suit), as well as to prove the falsity of whichever "facts" are being alleged to be libelous. If, instead, one were to be suing under privacy-invasion laws instead of libel laws, different standards would apply, but wouldn't you still have to prove your identity, and file the suit under your real name?

There are some paradoxical complications to using the legal system to object to such activity, which were pointed out in the form of a request, which only became trolling because it was made rhetorically to a respondent who has no likely prospect of following it, and this fact was known to the writer in advance.