It was only one person writing at a time under the pen name. And they didn't make up a biography for the pen name. And they didn't have an undisclosed conflict

It was only one person writing at a time under the pen name. And they didn't make up a biography for the pen name. And they didn't have an undisclosed conflict of interest. And when journalists[1] inquired about the identity of the columnist they didn't try to hide it. Maybe those are minor differences, but "Ann Landers" "Dear Abby" "Dear Prudence" and similar feel different than a corporate team of people working on behalf of a loan refinance company giving you advice about loans. In a related vein, learning that Franklin W. Dixon and Carolyn Keene (famous for _The Hardy Boys_ and _Nancy Drew_ novels) were really whole teams of ghostwriters surprised me.[2] I had always thought they were similar to the advice columnists, with one person adopting the pen name for a long run. [1](https://www.nytimes.com/1971/05/18/archives/a-rival-for-ann-landers-and-dear-abby-but-its-in-the-family.html https://www.nytimes.com/1971/05/18/archives/a-rival-for-ann-...) [2](https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/05/hardy-boys-nancy-drew-ghostwriters/394022/ https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/05/ha...)