
The Real “Authenticity Killer” - atularora
http://scobleizer.com/2011/03/07/the-real-authenticity-killer-and-an-aside-about-how-bad-the-yahoo-brand-has-gotten/
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zeemonkee
Fine if you are a huge social media personality like Scoble. If Scoble got
fired from Microsoft then he'd make himself a martyr and his social cred would
only increase. He'd lose nothing.

If you are a small-time schmuck with a wife and kids to support, you'd think
twice before voicing a controversial comment on your employer. Part of the
free speech of the web is having your opinion heard, even anonymously, without
risk to yourself.

Yes, that leads to trolling - whether idiots, sock puppets of the left or
right, etc. But that's the drawback of free speech - like drunken hecklers in
an audience. But I'd rather have the trolls than lose the right to post
anonymously or under an assumed identity if I wanted to. If I want to use my
real name - fine. But that's my choice to make.

We don't have to play in Zuckerberg's world if we don't want to.

~~~
cfinke
> If Scoble got fired from Microsoft

FYI, Scoble hasn't been at Microsoft since 2006; he's a Rackspace evangelist
now.

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prodigal_erik
He doesn't seem to take the issues from <http://paulgraham.com/say.html> very
seriously, maybe because his most controversial position to date has been to
support anti-discrimination legislation while living in the heart of a blue
state. I have to negotiate for food and shelter with members of a nosy,
judgmental, sometimes irrational species. My name doesn't make my arguments
more valid, and using it is a stupid risk to take because it doesn't offer me
any upside. Without a pseudonym, I wouldn't even offer purely technical
opinions when it would affect my ability to line up projects in the future
(e.g., just because MySQL is crap or iOS turned evil doesn't mean I'd rather
starve than touch them).

