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So the lesson for those who maintain anonymous or pseudo-anonymous identities online- As your pseudonym's popularity grows, chances increase that someone will

So the lesson for those who maintain anonymous or pseudo-anonymous identities online- As your pseudonym's popularity grows, chances increase that someone will be interested in unmasking your identity. The only solutions are to reduce your pseudonym's visibility or staying fully anonymous in the first place.

divbzero 6y ago
Incredibly sad but true. There seems to be two opposing imperatives for online social identity. On one hand you want reputation and accountability for what people say to fight trolling, bullying, and misinformation. On the other hand you want some level of anonymity to encourage free speech and expression. I don’t know if this core tension can ever be fully resolved but our current online environment is clearly far from optimal.
- sam_lowry_ 6y ago
  This is a solved problem, just rarely implemented in real life on a large scale. Karma systems. You can be anonymous and at he same time have some valuable history of past interactions. Slashdot, Stack Overflow, etc. are good examples.
  - BTCOG 6y ago
    And yes, this is how all online interaction should work. Similar to other PGP pseudonymous internet identity. The world needs the 1990's identity segregation via handles once again. Social media is a fad that simply brings out negative.
- BTCOG 6y ago
  It's not sad at all, it's the nature of the beast. Nobody should ever be making all their real life identity and actions public online. Doing so is incredibly vapid and irresponsible. The internet still is for consuming information, and regardless of if 5 billion people do the incorrect thing or not, should not be used as a popularity contest gambling with one's real life identity.
koheripbal 6y ago
I teach my kids to be a superhero on the internet. Never use your real name / change costumes (usernames) everywhere you go.
- a1369209993 6y ago
  That's a excellent way of putting it, actually. (Obligatory "inb4 j jonah jameson pops up", though.)
W8LLverINOCuty 6y ago
There is no such thing as full anonymity on the net ... it's called "WinD.O.H.S." for a reason and Homer's been warning about it for decades ... things like this are not a coincidence and have multiple meanings, especially in light of recent news: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5pkQgAo5tg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5pkQgAo5tg Notice there's a pizza theme here ... yes, it is real: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NK90P471y8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NK90P471y8 There's a reason there's teenage mutant ninja T_T UR LE and "Master Splinter" and "Splinter CELL" and such things; nothing is a coincidence. There have been many subtle hints for decades and sometimes some people keep insisting on playing stupid games. There was a German indie movie "Run Lola Run" in the "mid-90s" and a recent movie called "Mid-90s" that came out recently, and despite it being another indie-type film, it had an unusually large outlay of advertising expense for such a small film, as did Run Lola Run ; that is not by accident. It's also not an accident the main song in the soundtrack to that movie is "After Laughter Comes Tears". There are other movies with subtle and sometimes not-so subtle indications of something going on somewhere for a long time. In fact, if you're a little older there is a a Stevie Nicks song whose meaning would leave most jaws dropped. There's a lot, lot more ...
DanBC 6y ago
> The only solutions are to reduce your pseudonym's visibility or staying fully anonymous in the first place. Or maybe don't use a super secret identity that includes most of your real name, and your job, and where you work?

divbzero 6y ago

Incredibly sad but true. There seems to be two opposing imperatives for online social identity. On one hand you want reputation and accountability for what people say to fight trolling, bullying, and misinformation. On the other hand you want some level of anonymity to encourage free speech and expression. I don’t know if this core tension can ever be fully resolved but our current online environment is clearly far from optimal.

sam_lowry_ 6y ago
This is a solved problem, just rarely implemented in real life on a large scale. Karma systems. You can be anonymous and at he same time have some valuable history of past interactions. Slashdot, Stack Overflow, etc. are good examples.
- BTCOG 6y ago
  And yes, this is how all online interaction should work. Similar to other PGP pseudonymous internet identity. The world needs the 1990's identity segregation via handles once again. Social media is a fad that simply brings out negative.
BTCOG 6y ago
It's not sad at all, it's the nature of the beast. Nobody should ever be making all their real life identity and actions public online. Doing so is incredibly vapid and irresponsible. The internet still is for consuming information, and regardless of if 5 billion people do the incorrect thing or not, should not be used as a popularity contest gambling with one's real life identity.

koheripbal 6y ago

I teach my kids to be a superhero on the internet. Never use your real name / change costumes (usernames) everywhere you go.

a1369209993 6y ago
That's a excellent way of putting it, actually. (Obligatory "inb4 j jonah jameson pops up", though.)

W8LLverINOCuty 6y ago

There is no such thing as full anonymity on the net ... it's called "WinD.O.H.S." for a reason and Homer's been warning about it for decades ... things like this are not a coincidence and have multiple meanings, especially in light of recent news: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5pkQgAo5tg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5pkQgAo5tg Notice there's a pizza theme here ... yes, it is real: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NK90P471y8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NK90P471y8 There's a reason there's teenage mutant ninja T_T UR LE and "Master Splinter" and "Splinter CELL" and such things; nothing is a coincidence. There have been many subtle hints for decades and sometimes some people keep insisting on playing stupid games. There was a German indie movie "Run Lola Run" in the "mid-90s" and a recent movie called "Mid-90s" that came out recently, and despite it being another indie-type film, it had an unusually large outlay of advertising expense for such a small film, as did Run Lola Run ; that is not by accident. It's also not an accident the main song in the soundtrack to that movie is "After Laughter Comes Tears". There are other movies with subtle and sometimes not-so subtle indications of something going on somewhere for a long time. In fact, if you're a little older there is a a Stevie Nicks song whose meaning would leave most jaws dropped. There's a lot, lot more ...

DanBC 6y ago

> The only solutions are to reduce your pseudonym's visibility or staying fully anonymous in the first place. Or maybe don't use a super secret identity that includes most of your real name, and your job, and where you work?