Replies to post #201570 on DD Support Board and Research Team

[JMMatthews]

I don't have an issue with this part. Check my Twitter too

"When you don't even put your real name on your garbage (or the garbage you share or like), it really doesn't help." Instead, he said, people shouldn't be able to share or like things without proving their identity first."

How about you?

[janice shell]

Those are all valid points. But the tradition of anonymous authorship is strong in our culture. Let's not forget the men who wrote the Federalist Papers. Or Ben Franklin. Or, in Europe, the UK, and the States, countless novelists, poets, and journalists.

And you really can't ask people to show ID to participate at a website. That would be ridiculous. And we should bear in mind the amount of trolling that's another unpleasant aspect of the Web. I joined Silicon Investor in 1996. Back then, a great many SI members used their real names. When they signed up, it hadn't occurred to them to use an alias.

Within the next three years or so, more and more members switched to aliases. Why? Trolls and stalking.

I also think the "liking" thing is idiotic. Psychologists really ought to study why so many people find it so important. But clearly they do.

I'm pleased that IHub has resisted the many requests to add a "Like" button to posts.