A reader left a comment on one of the recent posts in which I shared some Christian hate mail I'd received asking why I don't share the identities of those who send this stuff. It had never occurred to me that this might be something I should do. When I share Christian hate mail, I could include the author's handle, email address, and even IP address. The question is whether I should. I'm very interested to hear what you think about this - good idea or bad idea?When I consider the possible pros and cons of disclosing such information, I struggle to come up with more than the following:
Pros
- Possibly shaming the sender into thinking before emailing hatred
- Alerting others in the atheist community that of a potential threat
- Further agitating the sender
- Giving the sender the attention and/or publicity they may crave (e.g., Mabus/Markuze)
Am I leaving anything out that you would consider important?
My temptation would be to consider each email carefully and make the decision on a case-by-case basis, focusing mostly on the level of threat. It seems to me that the most compelling reason to do this would be the idea of alerting the atheist community of a potential threat, and that would mean that it wouldn't be worthwhile unless the threat was judged to warrant it. But I want to hear from you before I make any decisions.
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