Pseudonyms - good or bad
 

I have been doing this "posting online" thing since before Compuserve and AOL. At one point I ran the "OSU Macintosh Users Bulletin Board Service (BBS)" on a 128K Macintosh connected to my home phone with a 300 baud modem. (If you don't know what that is, don't worry, it has nothing to do with this post!)

In all that time the subject of pseudonyms comes up regularly and any suggestion of requiring real names is vigorously opposed.

However, one thing that is constant is forums that do require real names are much more polite.

What are your thoughts - I am not suggesting TOTV should change, just asking in general.

Personally, I think a lot of the hate and vitriol we see in so many places online is only because of people being anonymous. And I think in many cases that carries over into real life.

I am all for free speech, but almost every forum (like TOTV) is a private service, and free speech is not guaranteed in that situation.

Inquiring minds want to know... (haven't heard that in a while have you! :) )

I see no reason for anonymity and agree whole-heartedly. I do not feel like my personal security is threatened if someone knows my name.

But, that's just me -- and no, I do not rip my name and address off of the magazines before I discard.

Barbara Kent oops I meant BK001

[QUOTE=BK001;1679684
Barbara Kent oops I meant BK001[/QUOTE]

:1rotfl:

I tend to agree, NextDoor requires real names, and I do not recall any negative posts, however, NextDoor is open ONLY to registered users and not the general public. While I have never taken any statics, I agree that anonymous boards do tend to have more negative posts.

ESPECIALLY if Political, in this enviornment, it's a pity!

Personally I don’t have any problem with people using a screen name, and yes, real names can cause difficulties for some. Dealt with this many years ago with a particular individual. He lives in one country and was from another. Admin and mods on that board knew who he was and where he was and somehow, his anonymity was breached...and there was definite political danger for his family as well as himself. It’s true that people do behave more kindly towards others when all know exactly who they are, but that shouldn’t be a prerequisite for behaving civilly
towards others.

I used to run an online bridge group with a couple of hundred players. Most had online pseudonyms but we knew each others’ first names. It definitely kept things much more civil but still allowed some personal security. I do believe that using full names online, especially in a public forum is not a wise move and would not belong to any forum that required my full name to be public.

I suspect that the effect is caused more by immediacy than by anonymity.

People usually use their real names in e-mails and on Facebook, yet the level of politeness can still be low.

It is too easy to tap out an electronic message and send it off without giving it due thought, whereas with a hand-written message you might tend to re-read it and may consider not sending it or, at least, re-drafting it.

One benefit of anonymity is that people tend to engage more. On Facebook, many people have accounts but use them just to view other people's posts rather than to contribute anything themselves. If they can comment anonymously, such as on TOTV, I suspect that they are more likely to join in the conversation.

This is why pseudonyms are important. Even on Facebook, I can change my settings so that ONLY people on my friends list can read my posts. I don't have to block "each and every person who is NOT on my friends' list."

Here, on this forum, anyone in the world with access to American fora can read it, and I have zero control over who is and is not allowed to read my posts. I can choose to "ignore" someone and not read THEIR posts - but I can't prevent them from reading mine.

Until bulletin boards provide that capability, I'll continue to be glad for pseudonyms.

When the web was a lot younger than now, my daughter started a site for philosophers. People posted from all over the world and she was the moderator. She was in Philadelphia at the time working on her masters degree. One person from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia disliked something she posted and tracked her down. He found her at her graduate desk in her office at the university and threatened her. When she came to our city to be with us, he followed her. It took us quite a while to get rid of him.

My daughter taught me internet safety. I still have regular fights with Apple for asking finger prints and face recognition. Please be careful, anyone can read these posts, anywhere.

I have to disagree that people on NextDoor and Facebook are more civil to one another. I've seen some pretty snarky comments and come-backs on both of those sites. The other news source we can't mention here is highly toxic and vitrolic. It was that way when some of the folks used their real names. It amazes me how childish adults are to one another. Being mean doesn't benefit anyone. THAT all said this conversation has pretty much hit all the points. JMHO

It seems to depend a lot on the moderator/administrator of the various boards.

I have a tendency to share too much and also push certain people's buttons on just about every Forum I have been on since 2001 or so.

There are a lot of ways though the average poster can limit his or her exposure by not sharing too much personal information online. And being cautious about what they post about themselves.

I do like Forums with moderators who have some control of the people on them.

One of the worst I found was Findlaw in 2002 through about 2005 or so which had little or no control over names used, e-mail addresses given, etc. Anyone could go on there and just make up any handle they wanted to and change it and re-register with fake e-mail addresses and the like. A real wild wild West.

I remember when I "upgraded" from 300 to 1200 baud. Thought I'd died and gone to heaven. :)

As for pseudonyms, there is a certain segment of the population who have recently decided that the best way to take over the world is to find out the identities of those whose views differ from their own and to then do everything they can to destroy them via boycotts, online smear campaigns, etc. For that reason alone, people need the option of choosing between using their true name or a pseudonym. Sad world we live in these days ...

kathy

I would never post under anything but a pseudonym.
Look at the information the low life can glean from sites like Facebook.
So many subscribers can't wait to give out all their lifes information, schools, holiday dates, photos of kids and family, etc. etc.
Then they wonder why they become the victims of crime.
There are enough hazards online, without giving the baddies more ammunition.

Another solution is private forums. With identity verification and secure posting so only member can read and post.

Also, good internet safety recommends that you never post anything useful to hackers. Following that your name is interesting, and someone may not like your political views, but assuming you never post addresses, phone numbers, photos of yourself and/or family, etc. (details) then there is not really anything THEY can do - well, if you **** them off enough they can dox you, but that is normally because you weren't being polite.

I guess it is sort of like walking into a bar and being belligerent to a bunch of drunk bikers.