[TriLUG] Re: Pseudonyms

[Andrew Perrin]

There are two separate concerns involved in the pseudonym debate - let's
separate them.

1.) The use of a pseudonym as opposed to an IRL (offline) name in posting;
and

2.) The lack of accountability posed by a lack of history for a given
online poster.

Concern 1.) seems unfounded to me - I don't particularly care if "Gnu Man"
is some unfortunate soul's real name, or if it's made up. Frankly, I don't
know if "Roy Vestal" or "Richard Stallman" are real names or made up
either, although I have suspicions. But that question seems irrelevant to
the process of evaluating their contributions.

Concern 2.), on the other hand, seems very reasonable to me. I've never
noticed "Gnu Man" posting here before, so I don't have a basis on which to
judge his (I assume gender based on the "Man" moniker) demeanor, logical
skills, interest, or experience.  Whether or not "Roy Vestal" is a real or
a made-up name, I know that posts here from that name have been honest and
helpful in the past, and so I classify the likely quality of new posts
under that name. I have no such background with which to evaluate posts
from "Gnu Man".

Comments and flames welcome.

ap

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Andrew J Perrin - http://www.unc.edu/~aperrin
Assistant Professor of Sociology, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
clists at perrin.socsci.unc.edu * andrew_perrin (at) unc.edu