Responses on pseudonymity
-------------------------

A number of people have written responses to my recent post on pseudonymity,
and I appreciate everybody taking the effort.

Slugmax[1] seems to agree with me that ESR's advice is bad, and seems to use SDF
under his pseudonym in very much the same way that I do, taking care never to
"cross the streams" between his two lifes by e.g. using his SDF email address to
communicate with "the outside world".  He talks about the issue of "crossing the
line" in making reference to real-world details in a phlog.  This is a good way
to think of things, I think, but the problem is that the line is very fuzzy.  I
am aware that I have proably crossed the line whereby somebody who *really*
wanted to sink some time and effort in could probably figure out who I was, or
at least make some well-informed guesses, but where a quick and casual effort
would bring up nothing.  I think I'm okay with this - remaining hardcore
pseudonymous requires a *lot* of effort.

psztrnk[2], who openly phlogs under his real name, but still uses
well-constructed fake identities online for some things, seems to understand
well the sense of freedom I get from phlogging pseudonymously. That said, he
obviously does not see any harm in using his real name for the kind of
day-to-day stuff he writes about.  I have thought similarly in the past, but I
am starting to reject the notion that I can predict what will and will not turn
out to be harmful in some sense far down the road.

Ze Libertine Gamer[3] seems strongly in favour of pseudonyms, and discusses
threats that I actually did not even think about when writing my own article,
mostly nuisance lawsuits and, at the most extreme end, the phenomenon of
"SWATting".  These might seem like extreme possibilities, but they do, in fact
happen.

I suppose the rational thing to do here is to take a cost/benefit or expected
utility approach.  For any given online activity, using your real name has
certain possible negative consequences, which differ in both probability and
severity (being killed by a SWAT team is far worse than being sued, but also
thankfully far less likely), and also some positive consequences, again with
varying probabilities and significance.  In some cases the overall expected
utility of using your real name may be positive, and in others it may be
negative.  I advocate thinking hard and acting accordingly (in this and,
indeed, most other affairs).

Something to think about here is the question of possible positive consequences
of using your real name.  Sometimes these can exist, most obviously if one is
publishing work which demonstrates considerable skill in some technical field
which might translate into paying work, say.  In other situations, I have an
incredibly hard time thinking of possible benefits.  psztrnk says that when
phlogging about everyday stuff "I feel that none that I write or reveal can/will
have a negative impact on my life".  Obviously he feels that it can have a
positive impact on his life or he wouldn't do it, even if that positive impact
is limited to letting him blow of some steam or maybe make some strange internet
friends on gopher :).  However, I wonder if he can envisage any possible
positive impact which depends upon his real name being attached.  I am having a
hard time thinking of any (even if you happen to end up getting in touch with
somebody who turns out to be the love of your life thanks to your phlog, this
could of course still happen if you phlogged pseudonymously and revealed your
true name only to that person via email).  Rationally speaking, even if the
chance of getting sued or shot due to phlogging under your real name is a
million to one, if the chance of something *good* happening as a result which
could not possibly happen if you phlogged under a handle instead is zero, it
makes more sense to use the handle...

[1] gopher://sdf.org:70/0/users/slugmax/phlog/reply-to-solderpunk-thoughts-on-pseudo-anonymity
[2] gopher://sdf.org:70/0/users/psztrnk/log/20180105.txt
[3] gopher://zelibertinegamer.me:70/0/phlog/2018-01-07_1232.txt