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Comment by lutusp | Hacker News Reader

A quote: "For some reason big companies are really into real names."

Yes, and increasingly so. The reason? People are forced to be more serious as well as more polite in their comments if they must post under their real names. The primary reason for the juvenile atmosphere in many Reddit threads is the fact that contributors mostly post anonymously.

Huffington Post recently changed its policy, now requiring commenters to post under their real names:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/22/tech/web/huffington-post-anony...

Quote: "Arianna Huffington is fed up with the trolls."

Well put. I've been posting under my real name since the days of Usenet, twenty years ago, when anonymous posting was almost universal. Now it seems the rest of the world is catching up.

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Sorry, but the idea that real name policies are all about improving discourse is nothing but a load of self serving bullshit from the companies that push it. They (and their advertisers) stand to benefit massively the easier people are identified and profiled.

Tell me something - would you say the sentence exactly like that in person? (Not to close friends, but people you only sort-of know.)

Or would you tone it down a bit? I hope you get my point.

I'm not the person you addressed, but I would. And just a single glimpse at facebook (or twitter or a newspaper comment column) shows people will show horrible, socially absolutely unacceptable behavior on the internet, even if their real name is attaced. I think facebook has worse manners than reddit. The believe that real names would increase the quality of the content or the manners is IMO back up by nothing but wishful thinking.

I think what I was trying to say in my piece is that if you have anonymity AND a reputation you get the best of both worlds. Trolls will be modded down by other users (assuming a reasonable reputation system) and people will be free to speak BOTH respectably and openly. Note that you can always use your real name as your handle if you choose.

> They (and their advertisers) stand to benefit massively the easier people are identified and profiled.

I agree that predatory advertisers are the scourge of the modern Internet, but one can profile a nickname as easily as a real name. On the other hand, it is certainly true that a person posts more carefully if his real name is attached to the result.

From the perspective of a website operator, a nickname has an associated IP, and a real name has an IP -- they're the same, both easily tracked. A nickname arises in a browser indexed with cookies, as does a real name.

> ... nothing but a load of self serving bullshit ...

And the tone of your reply proves my point.

> it is certainly true that a person posts more carefully if his real name is attached to the result

It's pretty easy to agree on this. What's up for debate is what carefully implies.

And there's no shortage of people who will still post stupid inane comments under their real name, so you've still got to rank them somehow.

> They (and their advertisers) stand to benefit massively the easier people are identified and profiled.

How? Surely people are just easily matched on a pseudonyms?

Not when they choose a different pseudonym for each site. You only have one real name (usually).

It's pretty easy to link psuedonyms together so I don't think you're right.

I disagree.

Pseudonyms have in no way hindered polite, serious discussions on any forum I've ever seen. The only way to ensure the atmosphere you seek is through curated and carefully moderated discourse. Heavy or light-handedness in handling discussion will kill the atmosphere and dissuade any honesty, politeness or even truth (for fear of reprisal) even if real names are enforced.

Reddit is the way it is because its founders and moderators wish it so. Every community gets the users it deserves.

Edit: Some cleanups (not enough coffee... also it's 5:13AM here)

Obviously good moderation works better, but that doesn't mean real names can't help.

And how do you know if someone actually used their real name, or just something generated by a tool like rig?

Look at Twitter; Almost everyone uses their real name. Even terrible trolls. Discourse is as uncivil as you can get on the internet.

Moderation makes communities; Real Names do not.

I 100% agree,it is all about the kind of community one wants to build. If your content is trash like in some sub reddits or 50% of the huffpo articles, you'll get the trolls.

Some more serious sub-reddits are totally clean of trolls.

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