There are pluses and minuses to my practice of real-name posting.
Unless your posts are always 100 percent apolitical, pseudonyms are a good idea for the young. It's hard to predict what might some day throw off a potential employer. And, who knows, some day you might want to run for elected office. No need to make oppo researchers's jobs easy!
One reason someone might post with a pen name -- privacy -- is not a big concern of mine. I used to post on a board that required real names (even if not totally enforced), and did the same here.
Hypothetically, real name posting improves civility, but I admit this to be dubious:
http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/29/sur...rove-comments/
One slight reason I real-name post is that if someone was considering use of the software in my tag line, it may make them more confident it isn't malware.
Steve Eisenberg
Wynnewood, Pennsylvania U.S.A.