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Randi Zuckerberg Runs in the Wrong Direction on Pseudonymity Online

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Re: Randi Zuckerberg Runs in the Wrong Direction on Pseudonymity Online

#22

Post by djb_hackernews »

That quote makes me feel like she(he?) didn't really understand what they were saying. It looks almost identical to a word jumble. I know it was a free form panel, but jeez, you are the marketing director of Facebook, you should be a better communicator than that.

Re: Randi Zuckerberg Runs in the Wrong Direction on Pseudonymity Online

#23

Post by jamesu »

A while back i decided to forego my pseudoname in order to look more professional.

This has led to many problems: for one, conflicts. It seems every other month people mistake me for someone else with the same name. Either that or yet another person "mistakenly" uses my gmail address to sign up for a web service.

My last name is also difficult for some people to pronounce. With a pseudoname, this was not an issue. Not to mention my pseudoname was pretty easy to remember... people even still use it!

Really as far as i know, my lack of a pseudoname has not made me appear any more professional than before, so i'm finding it hard to find a good reason why i should even use my real name on the internet. In fact pseudonymity is a great tool to segregate online identities in this age where people will write and store prejudicial information about you for extremely long periods of time (forever if it gets to archive.org).

Re: Randi Zuckerberg Runs in the Wrong Direction on Pseudonymity Online

#24

Post by VladRussian »

reso wrote: post #7
bdhe wrote: post #5

In these sort of arguments I don't really understand why civility in and of itself is valued. It only makes sense in a social situation that affords civility. For that you can make "giving up anonymity" opt-in , rather than opt-out (which is mostly what is being done a lot, from forums that force you to use FB accounts to tor users in various countries who have no easy way to opt-out of foregoing anonymity). It is ra…

The argument is that online anonymity itself also creates real-world consequences, such as character assassinations, harassment, and downright internet crime. If "Civility" means "being nice to each other", why shouldn't we value it, in and of itself?

>online anonymity itself also creates real-world consequences, such as character assassinations, harassment, and downright internet crime.

anonymity itself doesn't create crime or harassment. Like in the real life, it only makes it easier to perpetrate one. With this being said, why wouldn't we all wear GPS and RFID enabled collars at all times with our name, identification number and scan barcode being promptly visible on the collar?

Nice device, goes well with Guchi pants:

http://www.extremtrac.com/e/products/personal%20tracking%20s...

Re: Randi Zuckerberg Runs in the Wrong Direction on Pseudonymity Online

#28

Post by DanielBMarkham »

Yuck. This argument is consistently framed as a false dichotomy: either get rid of pseudonyms or keep them.

Why not both? Some places, like Google+, might be nom-de-plum-free. Some, like reddit, might not. Why make it one way or the other?

I can easily foresee an internet that has parts that are "real person only" and parts that are the wild west. For that matter, some parts, like banking access, might be even more locked down. I don't think we have to make some massive decision for all of it. Let it evolve and bifurcate as it needs to.

Re: Randi Zuckerberg Runs in the Wrong Direction on Pseudonymity Online

#30

Post by nate_meurer »

VladRussian wrote: post #18

>People behave a lot better when they have their real names down. right from the KGB and Stasi manuals.

Yep. Replace the word "civility" with "harmony", and you have the official position of the Chinese government as well, almost word-for-word.
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