Re: [boost] Real names (Was: Religious sensibility...

Subject: Re: [boost] Real names (Was: Religious sensibility...
From: Julian Gonggrijp (j.gonggrijp_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-03-14 22:14:16

Op 15 mrt 2011, om 02:00 heeft Jim Bell het volgende geschreven:

> On 1:59 PM, Mathieu - wrote:
>> On 13 March 2011 20:05, Robert Ramey <ramey_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>>> Vladimir Prus wrote:
>>>> Personally, I would suggest to establish a policy that every single
>>>> post to this mailing list be required to use person's "real name" in
>>>> the "From" field. If we're supposed to have constructive technical
>>>> discussion, it's reasonable to require that all participant
>>>> be accountable for their words, which obviously requires using real
>>>> names and not "handles" that can be changed every other day.

>> I find this policy not really fair. Not really fair for people (like
>> me) who try to stay as anonymous as possible on the (wild) Internet. I
>> know that anonymity is something that can sound weird those days with
>> all the facebooks and the twitters out there but, well, for some
>> people it's really important that their identity isn't leaked on the
>> wild.
> 
> Though I understand the tack against anonymity, even the Federalist
> Papers' authors (whom most Americans hold in high regard) wrote under
> pseudonyms. <http://www.ask.com/wiki/Federalist_Papers>

I agree that if somebody really wants to hide their identity while 
participating in this list, they should get the oppurtunity to do so. But 
perhaps we should consider that an exception, and still ask people to show 
their real name /unless they Really Really Need to Hide their Identity/. 
Not because hiding your identity is such a bad thing, but because people 
who use a pseudonym "just for fun" might change their handle more often, 
which would have a clear disadvantage for a mailing list like this.
Hence I guess it's still reasonable in the exceptional case to expect the 
incognito participant to stick with the same handle/pseudonym?

In that way, all participants can be reasonably held accountable for their 
words and it's also practically feasible to retrieve anybody's emails from 
the archive.

-Julian