I kinda miss the old days of usenet, where I'd often post sarcasm or devil's advocate type comments with an
x-planation: Yes, this is sarcasm
type header.
Web forums generally don't have a way to attach metadata like that in a way that's not _normally_ seen, but is easily discoverable or demonstratable on a per-post basis.
The "Ha ha! I was only joking" defense is much more credible if you explicitly (but initially in a non-visible way) declared that up-front.
You can do this with cryptographic hash functions. Here's how:
1. Write whatever "meta" comment you want to attach to your post and add some random characters at the end.
2. Calculate the MD5 or SHA-1 hash of that comment + random characters [1] and add it to the text of your post.
3. Save the comment + random characters to a text file somewhere for future use.
Should questions arise as to whether or not you were, e.g., being sarcastic you will be able to prove your intent by presenting the original comment and letting everyone verify its hash valve. As a downside you would also have to add random hashes to every non-sarcastic post of yours to prevent sarcastic posts from being quickly detected by the presence of hash values. However, if you do so consistently and post a lot I'd wager that people would soon stop noticing them.
This may or may not be an overkill for signalling sarcasm but I have seen a few users here on HN with MD5 (or was it SHA-1?) sums in their "about" fields. I can only assume those contain their real identity should they want to prove it.
My opinions change regularly, I am sometimes enlightened, I sometimes have a change of heart. I don't post with my actual identity because of this.
I edit freely because of this. I don't care if other people hold old stuff against me; that's just people communicating with ghosts in their head. If someone has a serious problem with something I said, let them openly talk with me about it, or be counted among the people I just cannot be bothered to care about.
As I like to tell people: even human history is a HUGE thing compared to my own life, not to mention the universe. If I am lucky, I have 80 years to think and talk about all of it, and nobody, no boss, no relative, no friend, no life partner, could ever matter so much to me that I could completely swallow that thinking and talking, just because it might offend them. If in doubt, burn the bridges, think and talk freely, that's my motto...
I closed a lot of doors for myself with that, but I like the integrity I traded them for, I would not change a thing. Looking back so far, I would say anyone that ever mattered, didn't run away from the first misunderstanding, and not few friendships began with arguing over something with a stranger. On the other hand, the people who got upset about random superficial things, I don't really miss. So what could be better than having a website that filters some of them out, before we waste too much time and energy on each other?
On the other hand, you are depriving us from the opportunity to see how your characters keeps developing and how your opinions change over time, which is actually healthy.
I don't want a situation where someone stumbles onto an old post or where I played devil's advocate and I lose out as a result.