Fear the geek

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One thing I hate about blogs is this odd type of reasoning that people have the right to be anonymous. You don’t. People hide behind the ‘you don’t know who I am therefore I can act like a prick with impunity’. This has a coarsening effect on conversations. It’s one of the reasons I blog using my name – It keeps me a bit more honest and forces me to watch what I say.

Others apparently don’t follow the same path.

Sorry kiddo. You’re never as anonymous as you think.

As we say in the ‘ol south, “That’ll learn ya”

rolled out on Thursday, June 15, 2006 10:38 AM

Comments

# re: Fear the geek - Pat

Rolled Out On: 6/15/2006 9:43 PM

Fred gives the smackdown to one rude commenter:

http://www.vituperation.com/?p=376

# re: Fear the geek - Kav

Rolled Out On: 6/16/2006 4:21 AM

There is a flip side. I stay anonymous to make sure that I am unfettered in what I say. If I was to blog with my identity freely available then I think i would constantly be thinking 'how might this affect me in the future in my job?' This is not a case of being two faced, rather it is a knowledge of how people can react to things.

What I mean is that there are conversations I might have on my blog (or someone elses) on topics that I would not discuss with, say my boss, or others in authority where I work. Not because I would lie to them, just because it is stuff outside of my working relationship and unlikely to come up. However, you put something on a blog then it is open for everyone to read it and interpret in their own way. This can affect relationships where it shouldn't matter. Shouldn't but often does.

As to being civil or 'acting like a prick' I trust in my own sense of right and wrong to make that choice. I think it has stood me in good stead so far...

The thing about anonymity on a blog is that it is rarely absolute. All it takes is tracing a few of my throwaway remarks and some investigative work and my identity could easily be found. I trust in the fact that no one is going to be bothered hunting the information down to 'out' me, because, well, why bother? That's a big step from having someone type your name into a search engine and find details about you right away.

There are folks on-line who know who I am. When I 'know' someone such that I email them, chances are that I will use my proper email address instead of my yahoo account.

Wow, this went on a bit!