Solderpunk talks about pseudonymity [0] and the issues surrounding
it. Thankfully I do not recall ever reading that bit of bad advice
by Eric Raymond.
I can sympathize with solderpunk though. I've been pseudo-anonymous
here at SDF since I joined in 2007, and at times it's difficult. I
think some of my posts over the past year or two have been fairly
close to the line he speaks of, beyond which is my real identity for
anyone who looks hard enough. Some posts or information on hobbies I
don't disclose, as it would link me to my real online presence and
identity (the best example of this is my amateur radio license call
sign). But I'm also careful not to pollute my real web-space with my
SDF identity. I only use SDF email for local communication with
other SDF members, for example.
Still, the way I use SDF is exactly how I want to use SDF, so I'm OK
with these limitations. I think that if I ever wanted to use my real
name or talk about my other, more public interests I'd create a new
account at SDF. That raises other issues around having both accounts
signed in at the same time from the same IP address, but I guess
that is why this is all pseudo-, and not truly anonymous.
[0]
gopher://sdf.org/0/users/solderpunk/phlog/pseudonymity-woes.txt
