Should posters be required to use their real names at message boards?

Great Debates
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The Straight Dope is the most civil internet forum I have belonged to. This is because the Rules forbid flaming. It is not necessary to require everyone to post his or her real name. It is only necessary to monitor the forum, and ban trouble makers and bullies.

I rarely post a comment here I would not write in a letter to the editor of a newspaper or opinion journal. I post my name in the phone book, but not my address. Occasionally someone who finds a letter I wrote interesting will call me. Even when the person disagrees, the calls are civil.

When I leave a comment for a news story, an editorial, a column, or a letter to the editor on the website of a newspaper, I use my real name, even though most posters do not. I am quite candidly proud of my ability to compose interesting opinions that are well written. :slight_smile:

I have only read of people getting into trouble because of internet postings when they somehow implicated their employer. If you post your real name, and the name of your company, and condemn your company, or your boss you are certainly looking for trouble. If you post a controversial political opinion, you are probably not.

I belong to two erotic websites where many women and some men post nude photos of themselves. Many of these photos include the face of the poster. I have never read of anyone getting into trouble for this, either in a news story, or through the website.

If I was a boss, and found that a female subordinate had posted nude photos of herself on the internet, I would certainly not fire her! I doubt I would mention it to her, however. If she did not like the mention, she might complain to HR about sexual harassment. :eek:

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And, as it turns out, his real name WASN’T Norm, after all. (Was his real name REALLY George, or was even that just a SAG name?)

The beauty of American law is that everyone has a Right to more than one name.
(Did Mark Twain really sign his royalty checks that way?)

63

The only type of board I would post to that required my actual name would be a board that I used for information sharing. I think the only forum here that comes close to what I’m referring to is GQ.

So, for example, if I was a home DIY’er, I wouldn’t have a problem using my real name if it was required to post. It would be a place on the net I could go and ask answer questions about home repair. I would not post to a site that demanded my real name that could cause controversy in any way. I think we are all becoming defined by what we do out here, as long as they can tie a post (behavior) to a real name. As others have said, if that can be used against you in any way, I’d like to keep things anonymous.

As for using my name, the thing that I fear would happen is that I would get more junkmail in my real mailbox as well as my on-line inbox by companies that want to target their products to me.

So, overall, I prefer to keep things anonymous. But I would post to a site like the diy site if I absolutely had to and saw it could provide useful information.