Justin du Coeur (jducoeur) wrote,
Justin du Coeur
jducoeur

The Real Name Fallacy

 h/t to osewalrus for the pointer to this fine article about the misperception that anonymity is the cause of bad behavior online, and that forcing everyone to use their wallet names is the solution.  The summary is that there has been actual research on the subject, and no, requiring wallet names doesn't help.  (And it makes some problems much worse.)

Mind, I think anonymity per se *is* a problem, because it prevents a lot of social tools from working right -- some amount of persistent identity is, in my experience, necessary for the functioning of a good community.  But pseudonymity, in my experience, is the best balance point: enough persistence to build community, without flailing around at the mistaken idea that online identities should be synonymous with real-world ones... This was originally posted via DreamWidth, at http://jducoeur.dreamwidth.org/1558617.html, where there are currently comment count unavailable comments. Feel free to comment either here or there.
Tags: identity
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