
Anonymity and Pseudonyms in Social Software - revorad
http://caterina.net/wp-archives/88
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flocial
The thing she misses or doesn't emphasize as much is that self-created
identities are just as valid as your birth name. The same goes for your avatar
versus a mugshot. The phenomenon of universal full names is relatively recent
across history and in many societies those people with names could change them
at will.

Insisting on real names also creates a burden for young people who might want
to leave certain things behind. There needs to be more balance to facilitate
self-expression AND social interaction.

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dbs11
She talks about preserving group #2 (pseudonyms) while agressively moderating
group #3 (trolls). This is the most important balance to keep, and moderation
is obviously a necessity. But I think there might be a way to inherently limit
trolling by using the proper site design for social interaction. At
Freeversation.com, we've developed an invite-only anonymous discussion forum
where everyone knows who was invited to the conversation, but not who's saying
what. In other words, an online form of Chatham House Rules.

So far, we haven't seen much trolling because we've eliminated the limitless
audience of traditional anonymous forums. Our focused discussion groups are
limited to relevant individuals only. I just think there has to be a way to
promote honest, open dialogue without having to moderate each and every
comment.

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sixtofour
"Eric Schmidt suggested that young people should be entitled to change their
identity to escape their misspent youth, which is now recorded in excruciating
detail on social networking sites such as Facebook."

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/7951269/Young-w...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/7951269/Young-
will-have-to-change-names-to-escape-cyber-past-warns-Googles-Eric-
Schmidt.html)

~~~
danneu
Five years ago, I started a forum that's since grown really large with a
really young userbase. Members I remember as 13-year-olds are now turning 18
and realizing that their pseudonyms can be Googled to reveal 5 years of their
awkward youth documented on my forum.

I've been getting a steady wave of kids asking me to delete their
accounts/posts to start with a blank slate.

