Well, for one thing, if you've seen the heated debates elsewhere on the forum, one does see the wisdom behind remaining
somewhat anonymous. The internet's full of weirdos who love to carry over their grievances and vent their spleen "IRL"
. I have neither the time nor the inclination to deal with that sort of stupidity outside of the screen.
Besides, a real name (and even photo) is simply a different kind of anonymity (unless you're famous). As an example, my real name is equivalent to "John Smith" where I come from
. It's so bad that my
friends and family can't find me on the internet (so low is the S/N). The world is a big place (and MR, more than most fora, is pretty heavily international). It's hardly likely that you're gonna see someone and go "Hey! I saw that dude on the bus today
". So, what next? Do we expect work data? Marital status?
What would it take to truly become non-anonymous? A phone number? Street address? A social security number? I guess it does seem weird sometimes when you try to visualize the avatar speaking the words that you're reading on-screen, especially when the avatar ain't human
.
As for the myth of civility through recognition, I know tons of people who misbehave quite efficiently in the full glare of publicity.
Personally, I've seen nothing to indicate that lack of anonymity helps greatly in this respect. I believe that being honest online has more to do with representing one's beliefs and opinions as truly and completely as humanly possible. Names and photos contribute nothing toward that end. There's absolutely nothing wrong with them of course (and they can even be pleasant at times), but I just don't see them as
relevant to online discourse (and they may frequently, in obvious ways, be roadblocks to honest debate). In fact, that's the beauty of the internet - even a distinguished scholar may have to enter into a debate on the same level of credibility as others and may find that he can't simply appeal to the authority he enjoys in the outside world. Some grow as a result (learning valuable pedagogical lessons in explaining complex concepts to the uninitiated); others sulk and try to emphasize their credentials in obvious ways. Anyway, before I ramble on, these should give you a few (of many)
good reasons why people may not want to use real names or photos on an online forum
. The bad reasons of course include trolling and flaming (which kinda covers it all).