This week The Guardian weighed into the Google plus online anonymity stakes with two articles, one from Jemima Kiss on nym wars , where Marx Dudek seems to have found her way into the murky world of The Guardian’s comment is free section. The other post, from Krishnan Guru Murthy is about anonymity and online social networks. Both posts have some interesting opinions.
I’m not a fan of the real names policies of Facebook or Google, there are a myriad of reasons why telling people it’s sensible to post with their real name is bad advice, there seems to be some sort of attempt to say that it’s only people living under extremist regimes who should fear using their real name, but there are day to day events that make it a bad idea. One example is in the comments of Krishnan Guru Murthy’s post where someone talks of the BBC’s decision to close the Ouch! disability forum they had there, the boards are now closed for posting. The person commenting on The Guardian pointed out how there are some sensitive subjects raised there, that people would not want to post about using their real names, and yet they had a community there that helped people share information and support each other. This is however an example of why you don’t need to be a part of Facebook, Google + or Twitter to social network, although the BBC’s decision to close the board remains a disappointment to its former users.