A Quick Note on “Fake Name” Accounts at Blazer’s Edge

Hi folks! Dave here. Over the past couple days, readers have been having good fun with impersonation accounts in the comment section at Blazer’s Edge. Those accounts take on the name of a public personage for the sake of humor. “General Managers” and “Coaches” drop cliché lines, “media members” respond, and such. Our readers are smart, usually funny, and it’s meant well.

While it was fun for a thread or two, we don’t allow people to adopt or impersonate famous names on site. The reason is simple. All of those “name” people know of the site, and many read here (or at least are linked by others here when something interesting is said). Evaluating people in the business is fair; we have no qualms with them reading critiques or anybody’s opinion of same, including yours. Having them sit by while someone adopts their identity and speaks for them is not fair, even if done in a humorous way. Even if they never choose to exercise it here, it robs them of the power to speak for themselves. We do carry many actual quotes from those people in our stories. Blurring the line between real quotes and unreal comments feels icky.

That’s why we’re asking (ok...insisting) people avoid direct impersonation, adopting the screen names of actual people who aren’t them. We know you’ve been having fun with it this weekend. I wanted to let you know where it went.

Thanks for your attention! Back to the Blazers.

—Dave (blazersub@gmail.com)