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Anonymous handles have a different set of problems which I think is why we've landed on real names for much of social media. Personally I prefer real names in

Anonymous handles have a different set of problems which I think is why we've landed on real names for much of social media. Personally I prefer real names in most contexts, but I get why some people don't.

kahnpro 8y ago
For one, it's easier than ever for the public to go all lynch mob-y on someone today and cut them off from society or otherwise ruin their life.
wyck 8y ago
Anonymity is very comforting, you brought your discussion to the table without stereotype or preconception getting in the way, much like this very site and the reason why reddit is so popular. It is the basis for free discussion, a foundation pillar of the internet. It's truly amazing that the early internet was a social experaince that went though a weird product/service commercial driven phase, and now we find ourselves trying to balance both of those out.
- allannienhuis 8y ago
  right, but I don't think we can ignore the problem of cesspools of really toxic behaviour that is at times enabled with anonymous handles. Moderation is much more important in those contexts. HN works because it's pretty heavily moderated (both by users via downvotes + comments and admins). But a heavily moderated forum is not a completely free discussion environment. And the forums full of toxic comments aren't really that free either, because a huge portion of potential participants choose not to participate because of the nasty environment. Clearly in some (many?) contexts there's a need for anonymity, and in some cases (HN) it seems to work out ok. I'm just not sure if anonymous is the right default for a lot of social media contexts. Both Slashdot and Reddit have become unusable for me because of the signal to noise ratio is so low (reddit may have some subreddits with better behaviour, but not any of the ones I found personally interesting).
octosphere 8y ago
It is still tricky, because a sufficiently motivated doxer could uncover your real legal name if they saw your logs. Things like IP addresses and who your friends are could possibly out you. It's not sufficient enough to use an anonymous handle. You have to sign up for the service using an anonymous proxy and use burner phones which are virtual and not tied to a particular cell mast nearby (if the service demands phone verification).
TangoTrotFox 8y ago
I think very nearly 100% of the reason that we've landed on real names for social media is because the dominant companies in social media make their money by extensively profiling their users and selling access to finely tuned selections of them for the purpose of advertising, political engineering, and so on. Encouraging, if not requiring, people to use their real name helps with this end. The interfaces are also designed with this in mind -- encouraging people to post personal information and to reward your 'friends' for doing so. Even using mobile devices as two factor authentication or, increasingly, even to sign up to a service is part of the game. That mobile number immediately usually gives you an substantial amount of demographic information. And in any case also allows for near 100% certainty cross-compiling information between companies who trade and sell your information among each other to generate even more extensive profiles to everybody's benefit. Well, everybody except you.

kahnpro 8y ago

For one, it's easier than ever for the public to go all lynch mob-y on someone today and cut them off from society or otherwise ruin their life.

wyck 8y ago

Anonymity is very comforting, you brought your discussion to the table without stereotype or preconception getting in the way, much like this very site and the reason why reddit is so popular. It is the basis for free discussion, a foundation pillar of the internet. It's truly amazing that the early internet was a social experaince that went though a weird product/service commercial driven phase, and now we find ourselves trying to balance both of those out.

allannienhuis 8y ago
right, but I don't think we can ignore the problem of cesspools of really toxic behaviour that is at times enabled with anonymous handles. Moderation is much more important in those contexts. HN works because it's pretty heavily moderated (both by users via downvotes + comments and admins). But a heavily moderated forum is not a completely free discussion environment. And the forums full of toxic comments aren't really that free either, because a huge portion of potential participants choose not to participate because of the nasty environment. Clearly in some (many?) contexts there's a need for anonymity, and in some cases (HN) it seems to work out ok. I'm just not sure if anonymous is the right default for a lot of social media contexts. Both Slashdot and Reddit have become unusable for me because of the signal to noise ratio is so low (reddit may have some subreddits with better behaviour, but not any of the ones I found personally interesting).

octosphere 8y ago

It is still tricky, because a sufficiently motivated doxer could uncover your real legal name if they saw your logs. Things like IP addresses and who your friends are could possibly out you. It's not sufficient enough to use an anonymous handle. You have to sign up for the service using an anonymous proxy and use burner phones which are virtual and not tied to a particular cell mast nearby (if the service demands phone verification).

TangoTrotFox 8y ago

I think very nearly 100% of the reason that we've landed on real names for social media is because the dominant companies in social media make their money by extensively profiling their users and selling access to finely tuned selections of them for the purpose of advertising, political engineering, and so on. Encouraging, if not requiring, people to use their real name helps with this end. The interfaces are also designed with this in mind -- encouraging people to post personal information and to reward your 'friends' for doing so. Even using mobile devices as two factor authentication or, increasingly, even to sign up to a service is part of the game. That mobile number immediately usually gives you an substantial amount of demographic information. And in any case also allows for near 100% certainty cross-compiling information between companies who trade and sell your information among each other to generate even more extensive profiles to everybody's benefit. Well, everybody except you.