I never tried to hide my real identity on my blog. One one hand, I always felt that using a pseudonym was for the most part an exercise in futility. On the other, the theme of German-American relations is pretty obscure to most Americans, so it was unlikely that crazies that hang out at blogs like LittleGreenFootballs or MichelleMalkin.com would find their way to Dialog International and harass me personally.
It seems to be different in the German blogosphere, where many of my blogger colleagues such as Dr.Dean, erphschwester, 2020, and Quirinus prefer to remain anonymous.
After reading this rather frightening article in the Washington Post, I am much more sympathetic to the idea of preserving blog-anonymity.
"As women gain visibility in the blogosphere, they are targets of sexual harassment and threats. Men are harassed too, and lack of civility is an abiding problem on the Web. But women, who make up about half the online community, are singled out in more starkly sexually threatening terms — a trend that was first evident in chat rooms in the early 1990s and is now moving to the blogosphere, experts and bloggers said.
A 2006 University of Maryland study on chat rooms found that female participants received 25 times as many sexually explicit and malicious messages as males. A 2005 study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that the proportion of Internet users who took part in chats and discussion groups plunged from 28 percent in 2000 to 17 percent in 2005, entirely because of the exodus of women. The study attributed the trend to "sensitivity to worrisome behavior in chat rooms."
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As an domain owner I am not anonymous – since five years. No problemo. And, last but not least, blogging under real identity raises the awareness of what to publish and what not – an experience that makes the difference to the trolls.
Indeed, but for casual comments there’s no use in disclosing one’s identity. So just be honest like I am 😉
But most people stay anonymous because they fear consequences for their working life, really. A name-search with Google is much more revealing than an old-fashioned job interview. Quite existential threat.
Capitalism is a fear culture just like Communism was, after all. It’s only possible to speak freely when your opinion does not differ from the norm in Western societies.
Then what I say must be the norm in Western societies because I feel free to say what I want.