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Comment by CodeGlitch | Hacker News Reader

When I started using the web back in the 90's, everyone used to use a handle/nickname and so it was never easy to link an online person to a reallife individual.

These days everyone is encouraged to enter their real name, DOB and telephone number (see Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) which then creates a link to a real person.

I think the web was better because it was anonymous, rather than anything else really. If you had "SuperHardLord" posting abuse at you on IRC, it didn't really matter. However if you have a Twitter user with full photo and details doing the same, it feels much more personal.

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People say this, but before the web, on USENET in the 1980s and early 1990s, it was standard protocol (at least on serious newsgroups dealing with science and technology) to not only use your real name but even include a signature explaining where you worked and what your job was or if you were a student studying something or whatever. It was helpful in evaluating the responses -- a university professor, a professional in industry, and a student in a field each would have different viewpoints on a new technology or method, for example.

Still is this way. Just because 1 billion people jump off a bridge, are you going to do the same? There are many of us online who have never used Facebook, Twitter, etc and never signed up with real names. The only thing that gets me is I submit to using a credit card and online purchases. The express reason the web __is__ going to such lengths to become advert-laden trash is that too many common users all agree to these traps. It's ruining the entire world, I for one am eagerly awaiting most of these "constant growth" web plagues to tank and dotcom bubble 2.0 and won't miss these tyrants.

I'm not on Facebook or Twitter and know very well not to post my real name or other information if I can help it... Mainly to reduce the chance of fraud.

While yes, social media encourages identity ownership for obvious reasons, in modern forums like discord, reddit, and hn, most people use anonymous aliases like you describe. That hasn’t changed. I decided to not use social media and have no problem engaging with the world on the modern web.

But no one is complaining about discord or Reddit, it's all about Facebook and Twitter.

Discord and Reddit are just modern incarnations of USENET and forums.

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