h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm thinking of writing an article about the apparent need to hide one's identity - especially evident in the pages of h2g2,
Now, if you're a gal and you want to pretend to be guy, that's a reason, or if you are afraid that you may be identified with idiotic views that you hold and propose, or your mother / lover / friends / wife / husband would be embarrassed, or if you are shy, or ashamed of being you - they are reasons.
But I can't think of much else. If you can add further reasons, defend the practice, I would be glad to hear from you.
I have a rooted objection to anonmity. It's not good practice, in a world where adults should be prepared to be identified and take responsibility for their views.
Why hide? The practice is a nonsense.

Anonymity is an interesting question. Answering from my own perspective, when I signed up here I'd only had access to the www for a couple of weeks and I was aware of all the advice about not allowing your identity to be known. I also had this idea that the internet would be this wonderful place where your views would be judged at face value unaffected by prejudices caused by age, sex, colour, educational background, your choice of car, clothes, etc etc.Or associations with your name. Mike is pretty neutral but if you were called Kylie, Kevin, Romeo? Of course I was being naive - people make assumptions about you based on your username and are prejudiced by those. And, to avoid awkward situations you end up revealing personal information anyway. It was interesting how difficult it became not do to that.

In my case I live in a small community and I've written entries about it. It would be very easy for someone to find where I lived if I used my real name. People living in the community have already identified who I am. I would not want my niece, sister or mother to make themselves 'findable'. If I don't want them to do it I can hardly do it myself. I'd quite like to use my real name but haven't up 'til now mainly for that second reason. I don't really feel I have to avoid any internet stalkers.

Oh, there is one other point. This does not apply strongly to me but there is an element of it. At work, particularly in certain professions people have a work persona. For all sorts of reasons they have an image to present. It could be undermined by their frivolities on a site like this. Or, if they worked in the public sector they may have to keep political opinions, with or without a capital P, private. That was certainly the case in local government where I used to work. You could'nt expect your advice to be taken by one party's members if they knew you voted for the other, however objective you had been in giving it.

You may not approve of this at all but I have a second account on h2g2 which is completely anonymous. I opened that one precisely to have a place to write that friends and family who know my Wazungu identity would not see. Not because I'm ashamed of what I write but because I have grown protective about what I reveal of personal feelings. This way I don't make myself vulnerable. I can also write about things that might hurt them. I want to write about these things but I don't want to hurt them.

So to sum up - as Wazungu I take responsibility for what I say because there are real life people know who Wazungu is. My other ID is like a private diary, something everyone has a right to keep, but with the advantage that other people can read it and comment while still leaving it effectively private.

Having said all that I do respect those who do use their real names and I sympathise with your views. With the possible exception of the work reason anonymity all boils down to a lack of courage.
Waz

Good thinking. Reasons for anonmity that I had not thought of.
Thanks.
I am so bloody minded and furious about concealment, deviousness and all that crap that I tend to be impatient and intolerant (about this only).
When I was living on the Falls Road, Belfast - well, actually the Andersonstown Road, which is the continuation of that thoroughfare - during the late '60s and early '70s, when the Provisional IRA came into being, my life was continually threatened, amazingly enough also by Loyalists! One would have thought that my public diatribes against IRA murders and murderers would have been held in some esteem by those who opposed them. Perhaps the Loyalists detected that I condemned murder no matter who was responsible!
I was fearful at the time, but as I was single and lived alone I simply ignored threats and local IRA survellience and expressed my views vehemently.
Initially it was just a personal expression of horror at such activities, and then I became involved in forming the middle of the road Alliance Party of Northern Ireland. I was simple minded enough to believe that rational argument would convince the two tribes of the necessity to live together rather than kill each other.
I now know that otherwise decent people, when they are fearful of another group, are unlikely to be open to reason. Pity, but it's a sad fact.
I have only written one anonymous letter to the Press, to the 'Irish News'.
A man with Republican views had written to the paper suggesting that all army personnel caught in civilan clothes should be shot.
My reply asked all IRA Army Volunteers in Long Kesh Prison who agreed with this proposition to raise their hands.
I rather enjoyed signing the letter "Sauce for the Goose".

One man's freedom fighter is the next man's terrorist? One man's defender is the other's enemy. I was once in the disconcerting position of being a Brit. standing on a beach watching British battleships on patrol against the government I was living under. They were out there to make life as difficult as possible. Later I watched one from a beach in this country and it felt very different. Then I remembered the previous time and thought, that whatever it was doing out there, what I was looking at was a warship and you'd have thought the human race should have got further than that by now. It is very frustrating to suspect that the majority of people are decent at heart but allow violence to rule out of fear or inertia. I've never been confronted with a choice to stand up and be counted in which there was any real risk but there's always those sins of omission.

Standing up to be counted takes courage - you certainly have that. Ducking below the parapet means having the chance to fight on the next day. I suppose it's then what you do the next day that matters. Perhaps how you behave while using an assumed name matters too. If you use it to rant and abuse then it's cowardly. If you back up your opinions with rational argument, listen to other opinions and are willing to join in a debate is that different?

"I am so bloody minded and furious about concealment, deviousness and all that crap that I tend to be impatient and intolerant (about this only)." - we all have our particular hangups. I find it near impossible to have much perspective about deliberate deception and manipulation but I've never associated usernames with that. Perhaps because they are so much part of internet culture or perhaps I've led a sheltered internet life here on h2,(h2 is the only place I have 'talked' to people via on the www). I wonder how much thought most people actually give to the decision to use a nickname. I'm sure there are some who just like the opportunity to choose their own name. There are some interesting threads somewhere around here about how and why people choose the names they do. They are often a reflection of what sort of person they are and might paradoxically be more revealing than a real name. Not that that answers your issue of accountability.

I am a psychologist..I don't think people would understand in my professional life as discretion and confidentiality are paramount....however after over 18 months here most h2g2ers know what area I inhabit at the moment and quite a lot know my real name. Plus I think quite a few people have had problems in the past with spamming etc. so keep their identities to themselves until they are sure of others.In the current climate it is sensible to play it safe and not reveal too much about your personal circumstances until you are sure.It is not a deliberate act to mislead or conceal for the majority of people.