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I think it largely depends on the specific community and people in it. While some try to use online anonymity as an outlet to say and do things they wouldn't da

I think it largely depends on the specific community and people in it. While some try to use online anonymity as an outlet to say and do things they wouldn't dare on Facebook or IRL, others seem to want a reality-like reputation around their username/account. A large portion is probably caused simply by community rules; just see /b/ and HN... And to be fair, I've hardly ever seen serious insults on Facebook, but been called dipshit on anonymous platforms regularly. But again, this could be due to community standards.

Inconel 10y ago
>I've hardly ever seen serious insults on Facebook Every once in a while curiosity and boredom get the better of me and I visit ESPN or some other mainstream news site that uses FB profiles for the comments section and I almost always walk away shocked at the kind of comments people are willing to post while directly linking to their real name and profile, often containing their place of employment. Respectfully, if you haven't seen serious insults on FB, or at least on sites using FB profile logins, you haven't been looking hard enough.
- dasboth 10y ago
  I've seen similar and can't help but wonder if at least some of those people don't realise that's happening. Maybe they see the "login with Facebook" as a convenience without knowing their names, jobs etc. will be visible. The rest probably just don't care.
- blauditore 10y ago
  Ok, I was thinking of conversations among people who know each other (i.e. met at least once). Yes, I've seen bad language, heavily racist rants and such, but always from people who would do the same thing in real life, and mainly against third parties (politicians, celebrities, religions, ...). But I'm not extremely active though and hardly ever see large comment threads, like from ESPN.
mattnewton 10y ago
I honestly don't see this on Facebook. I have made very few connections there but I am routinely surprised by the stuff that comes out of people I went to high school with. Not usually because I find it personally offensive, but because I cannot believe someone is okay with having that out there linked to their real name.
BuuQu9hu 10y ago
People get death threats on Facebook.
morgante 10y ago
Those norms are correlated heavily with anonymity though. For example, while HN has no real name policy, HN users are generally substantially less anonymous than accounts on Reddit (for example). Many people openly list their personal identity in their profile.
- vidarh 10y ago
  I casually link my profile to my "identity" here because the discussions I'm involved in here carefully stick to things I'm happy to have linked to my name. That is partially because the culture here frowns upon a whole lot of types of discussions that would lead to comments I'd be unhappy to have come up when searching for my name. To some extent of course that means people can afford to be ruder on Reddit than here. But for my part at least I've "invested" as much in my Reddit username as I have in my username here, probably more. Just in different aspects of my life. What I say on Reddit has less effect on my work life, but just as much or more on my social life (most people around me are not on HN; most of them are on Reddit), and so I'm not about to "burn" my Reddit account. The greater difference here I think is the same as you see on smaller subreddits: A relatiely large proportion of the comments come from a small pool of heavily invested long term users. It doesn't matter if you know who we are in real life as much as it matters that newcomers that don't settle in to the culture here will be quickly pushed away (often after a number of downvotes and "this isn't reddit" comments) by longtime users that outnumber the newcomers. That happens on many subreddits too. But when you go to the bigger ones, the turnover is huge and it becomes impossible to police without very dedicated moderator teams which many subreddits lack, and the trolls congregate where they can get away with their trolling. There are plenty of subreddits where I'd be happy to go by my legal name. The reason I don't is more down to already having an established identity over the course of many years and no reason to.

Inconel 10y ago

>I've hardly ever seen serious insults on Facebook Every once in a while curiosity and boredom get the better of me and I visit ESPN or some other mainstream news site that uses FB profiles for the comments section and I almost always walk away shocked at the kind of comments people are willing to post while directly linking to their real name and profile, often containing their place of employment. Respectfully, if you haven't seen serious insults on FB, or at least on sites using FB profile logins, you haven't been looking hard enough.

dasboth 10y ago
I've seen similar and can't help but wonder if at least some of those people don't realise that's happening. Maybe they see the "login with Facebook" as a convenience without knowing their names, jobs etc. will be visible. The rest probably just don't care.
blauditore 10y ago
Ok, I was thinking of conversations among people who know each other (i.e. met at least once). Yes, I've seen bad language, heavily racist rants and such, but always from people who would do the same thing in real life, and mainly against third parties (politicians, celebrities, religions, ...). But I'm not extremely active though and hardly ever see large comment threads, like from ESPN.

mattnewton 10y ago

I honestly don't see this on Facebook. I have made very few connections there but I am routinely surprised by the stuff that comes out of people I went to high school with. Not usually because I find it personally offensive, but because I cannot believe someone is okay with having that out there linked to their real name.

BuuQu9hu 10y ago

People get death threats on Facebook.

morgante 10y ago

Those norms are correlated heavily with anonymity though. For example, while HN has no real name policy, HN users are generally substantially less anonymous than accounts on Reddit (for example). Many people openly list their personal identity in their profile.

vidarh 10y ago
I casually link my profile to my "identity" here because the discussions I'm involved in here carefully stick to things I'm happy to have linked to my name. That is partially because the culture here frowns upon a whole lot of types of discussions that would lead to comments I'd be unhappy to have come up when searching for my name. To some extent of course that means people can afford to be ruder on Reddit than here. But for my part at least I've "invested" as much in my Reddit username as I have in my username here, probably more. Just in different aspects of my life. What I say on Reddit has less effect on my work life, but just as much or more on my social life (most people around me are not on HN; most of them are on Reddit), and so I'm not about to "burn" my Reddit account. The greater difference here I think is the same as you see on smaller subreddits: A relatiely large proportion of the comments come from a small pool of heavily invested long term users. It doesn't matter if you know who we are in real life as much as it matters that newcomers that don't settle in to the culture here will be quickly pushed away (often after a number of downvotes and "this isn't reddit" comments) by longtime users that outnumber the newcomers. That happens on many subreddits too. But when you go to the bigger ones, the turnover is huge and it becomes impossible to police without very dedicated moderator teams which many subreddits lack, and the trolls congregate where they can get away with their trolling. There are plenty of subreddits where I'd be happy to go by my legal name. The reason I don't is more down to already having an established identity over the course of many years and no reason to.