Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 23:46:48 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Livejournal
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

Steve Smith <sgs at aginc.net> wrote:

> Keith, when you come across a community that uses pseudonyms in all
> of their communications and does not have their "real" names on
> their pages, ...

Some do, some don't.  Is the username you use here, "sgs", a
pseudonym?  Or is it just your initials?

Your livejournal profile says (in part):

  Bio: sgs is the nom de web of Steve Smith, owner of Agincourt
  Computing and computer consultant extraordinaire.

That doesn't look very pseudonymous to me.

Nevertheless, I asked.  NOT ONE person objected, in more than a week.
Am I to believe that everyone who would have objected, and everyone
who thought others might object, were all on vacation all week, and
that they all got home just as soon as I finally posted?  I guess all
I needed to do would have been wait just one more day, then.

> you might get a clue that they might not want their names shouted
> from the rooftops.

Also, WSFA is not the rooftops.  I thought we were all friends here.
Indeed, I found most of those by following people's friends' links.

> Real anonymity on the Net is really, really difficult.

And I saw little sign of any attempt at it.  If I could figure out who
was who, then so can anyone else.  Including those who might post the
info to public newsgroups, not just to this small, closed list which
is read only by people who know and care about each other.  And to do
so without asking everyone if it's ok first, as I did.

> I know of a number of cases (not here) where people have gotten into
> real trouble because somebody was "clever" and outed a nym.  Yes,
> the information is out there, but it takes a lot of work to put it
> together.

I did not do a lot of work.
--
Keith F. Lynch - kfl at keithlynch.net - http://keithlynch.net/
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