I’ve been recently made aware that there is a great deal of white privilege that goes along with that. As a white person, what I write online (in commentas well as on the 3 blogs I run) won’t be held against me as a representation of my entire race.

If someone hunts me down and harrasses me because of what I say online and I contact the police about it, they will believe me and take it very seriously. Because I’m white.

I don’t have to guard my already limited econmic opportunities out of fear that the doors won’t be shut on me entirely because a white person in charge of hiring found a post I wrote calling out racism. In fact, since I’m white, I may be congratulated for it.

I actually used to write comments under my first and last name, but they started to be pop up on Google a little too visibly even for my rather openly militant tastes. The web is becoming a much tighter presence in the world. We expect people to give up more and more right to their own information, and look sideways at them when they express reservations.

I think the responsibility mostly lies with the moderators. People are gonna be dicks. I never comment at some place that requires too much info from me or an actuall ccount registration to say anything.

I guess I’m weird like that, but I ought to be able to wander by a post on a topic I’m interested in and holler out that I agree without having to turn my head and cough first.

As you might guess by my never commenting here I am a lurker. Not because I don’t have anything to say, but because I have some social anxiety issues. While I haven’t had any firsthand experience with stalking, and my family know all about my strong opinions, people are terrifying to me and I do not want just anyone to find out what my real name is. The thought just scares me to death, I’ve avoided social networking sites so completely that I panic when I see I need to sign up to Facebook to do something.

So yes, for all the reasons already mentioned, and this one added, I think real names everywhere is not really the best decision. I’d never comment anywhere anymore, for starters.

My harpy name is linked somewhat to my name. And it’s a nick that others have occassionally taken to calling me. So if someone was to yell out “Mackey” in my material world, I would definately look up and about. But in saying that, Mackey is a common enough name, and my name will bring up lots of others who share a similar first and last name.

In saying that, from my personal perspective, I wouldn’t have a lot of issues with what I have said online, and it would have at some point been said face to face to others.

In this way people that eavesdrop/overhear conversations I have with others and want to start stalking are no different to internet trolls. I have had the unfortunate experience of having a meat world stalker take issue what I have said and tried to track me down.

My thinking is that if similar rules to real life apply to online, I think most people won’t be trolls. So long as, similar to real life, I have an opportunity to change my ideas over time or not as the case may be, develop friendships/skills/interests, etc then I think things would be ok.

So I am all about anonymity. If my boss called me into their office and called me out on something I wrote online, I would own it, because I never say anything on the internets that I don’t mean. But I would rather avoid the conversation. My boss making fun of me for playing video games (oh, I hated that job) is not a situation I’d like to repeat.

But being extremely opinionated online is starting to trickle over into my real life – I’ve been saying what I think way more often, and while it causes the usual amount of bullshit, I’m able to take it better because having a support system of snarky brilliant fellow-anons all over the place makes me more confident.

I am okay with having to provide a real email address, standardizing on a single pseudonym for each commenter (to cut back puppetry), and draconian comment policies.

As for trolls, even the best ones are engaging in behavior you wouldn’t get away with IRL. Stating an opinion 180 degrees from your own just to stoke conversation would merit an eye roll and a request to shut it or contribute something substantial. They’re just people who enjoy being the center of attention, and on the internet, they have found their nirvana. I’m all for strong comment moderation, as long as a discussion is allowed to go organically off topic. TWOP was brutal about that, and it kept things on topic but could be stifling.