[Archived] Net anonymity

[philipl]

Interesting article by a Facebook manager on trolling.

Are we keyboard warriors or would we happily post under our own names?

For my part, I feel more comfortable posting on here under a semi-alias knowing that if anyone wanted t have a real go at me personally, they would need to make something of an effort. More pressingly, with the net trawling up everything anyone does under their real name, it is reassuring to know that some of my unerringly accurate forecasts won't appear against me on a google search!!

[tashor]

philipl - with respect it has always been easy to know who you are with a simple 4 word google search...

It became even easier when the first thing on view on Venky's facebook recently was your face...

As at that time you were the subject of both juvenile and vitriolic abuse here, and with regard to what happened to Kamy I tried to message you that information - but your messenger, as always, was full...

As you are one of only a handfull of posters here that I would much miss if they didn't post I had some concerns..

Maybe anyone with a reputation worth preserving should maintain internet anonymity.

All the best.......

[broadsword]

A troll got jailed recently in the UK for posting nasty little comments. His picture was published in the 'paper, he looked a right saddo.

I'll see if I can find it.

Here we go, what a sad little man:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-11650593

[Steve Moss]

I'm in favor of requiring posters to use thier own names. It would increase the level of civility, I believe.

And by way of putting money where my mouth is, "smoss" is simply a contraction of Steve Moss.

[Tom]

I'm not overly bothered, my facebook is linked in my profile so it's not hard to find my name.

I believe mods on forums should somehow have access to people names in case of threats or whatever but i presume it's tracable somehow.

[Glenn]

I'm in two minds about this, I believe people have a right to privacy and will go a long way to protect it (we've had a couple of interesting cases on here in the past where we've had to make a call of whether to pass on details we have no legal obligations to, but have compelling moral ones both for and against).

However, I love people using their real names, as somebody said above, it makes the place much more personal and in many cases the process of making it more personal reduces people's likelihood to go on the offensive. That said, I'd never force somebody to use their real name, nor intentionally use it if it wasn't already public knowledge, there is also the handy twist that UK libel laws are a lot clearer when the person being libeled is identifiable.

I made the choice myself that whilst I would fight to allow others a level of anonymity, I would myself be very open about who I am. Given I make my living off my name and my reputation I have to be open about who I am, there is enough information on this forum for even the poorest of amateur sleuths to get my full name (which I believe is globally unique) and home address within seconds, it's trivial to find my address online too. The important thing is, it's my choice to do this.

[philipl]

Good points Glenn.

Ditto myself in that it is not that hard to find my identity- more than a hint in the moniker on here.

I certainly believe that an assumption of anonymity perhaps combined with problems with the use of English sometimes leads to far more aggressive posting than would be normal in face-to-face communication.

[Paul]

I certainly believe that an assumption of anonymity perhaps combined with problems with the use of English sometimes leads to far more aggressive posting than would be normal in face-to-face communication.

It's the assumption of anonymity I find interesting. It's actually very easy to find a whole load of details about posters who believe themselves anonymous but are in fact far from that.

[Mike E]

I'd be all for posting under my own name (people who know my previous id can use my current one and work it out pretty easily). It'd give me a level of accountability and tbf would probably stop me posting half the tripe I do on here

[DE.]

If you have genuine concerns about this issue and you want to remain as anonymous as possible I'd recommend using Tor. Tor scrambles your point of origin by several proxy points making it virtually impossible for anyone to trace information about the traffic source. While it may impact speed for you it is probably worth using if you want to fight for real online privacy.

TOR will work in regards to basic browsing privacy, but one of my friends mentioned recently that he uses TOR whilst on FB to ensure his conversations on there wouldn't be snooped on.

He seemed genuinely shocked when i told him TOR would have literally no affect on that at all

[T.J.Newton]

Problem here would be that blackburns a small town, so it would be fairly easy for some loon to track you down if they knew your real full name,

[colin]

I'm not going to pretend I have any internet/online knowledge at all, but for a private search engine that doesn't track your IP adress

https://duckduckgo.com/

May be a solution for some people

[ultrablue]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19357160

We had a real name system here in Korea up until the law was ruled unconstitutional.

As a foreigner though the system didn't effect me as we were exempt. I guess the Korean government wasn't interested in what it's immigrant population was saying. I doubt it would be the same in the UK.
Overall though it seemed a quite unpopular law and the people I asked about it were happy it was removed.

[gumboots]

I'd rather not put my real name simply because I'm a teacher and there are probably some of my ex pupils on here. I would if I had to but I'd probably read more and post less, which some might say would be a good thing

[ABBEY]

Awww shucks my fantasy MIss Gumboots has been shattered .

[cmb211087]

I'd rather not put my real name simply because I'm a teacher and there are probably some of my ex pupils on here. I would if I had to but I'd probably read more and post less, which some might say would be a good thing

Pretty sure I am one of them