as an Internet Old my knee-jerk is nowai?! but as a science human I’m so glad we finally have some data on this that we can use to push back against the idiotic notion that forced real name policies will somehow improve the quality of discourse according to people who apparently haven’t heard of farcebook
What matters, it seems, is not so much whether you are commenting anonymously, but whether you are invested in your persona and accountable for its behaviour in that particular forum. There seems to be value in enabling people to speak on forums without their comments being connected, via their real names, to other contexts. The online comment management company Disqus, in a similar vein, found that comments made under conditions of durable pseudonymity were rated by other users as having the highest quality.
There is obviously more to online discussion spaces than just their identity rules. But we can at say that calls to end anonymity online by forcing people to reveal their real identities might not have the effects people expect – even if it appears to be the most obvious answer.
I have wanted this for years. Tumblr is an excellent example. I say and post things here I don’t really want my boss, family or students seeing, but I care about what I put here and I am invested in my ridiculous user name representing some aspects of myself I find important and want to share.
Stunning stat: 48 Democrats who supported reforming filibuster to pass voting rights bills represent 34 MILLION more Americans than 52 senators (all Republicans + Sinema/Manchin) who opposed it
