from Hacker News

The Joy of Handles (1992)

by cryowaffle on 1/11/15, 6:59 PM with 5 comments

• by cbd1984 on 1/11/15, 11:41 PM

  It's interesting that this is still controversial. Surely we're all acting as adults on this medium, and adults have the right to refuse to answer impertinent and snoopy questions! There's nothing to be gained from knowing someone's "Real name", however defined (and even governments have a problem with that one, bureaucratic fiat or no), and therefore it's pointless to demand it.

  Even if you do, surely we've learned by now that any information which can be transferred via the Internet is rather trivial to fake; all photos, scans, and other files are subject to being modified and are, therefore, immediately suspect. (This could be changed, if governments were in the habit of giving people cryptographically signed documents verifying identity. They're not, and if they were, woe betide the person idiotic enough to give such documents to any third party.) Thus, anyone who claims too loudly to be using their real name is making a bluff which is difficult to call them on, something which should be kept in mind.

  The idea that there are 'consequences' for everyone's actions is central to some worldviews. The question then becomes, one, Who is in a position to decide which actions have 'consequences'?, and, two, Who is in a position to decide which 'consequences' are just? Being anonymous is one layer of protection against some of the people who take such duties on themselves, as the paper points out.

• by bluedino on 1/12/15, 1:18 AM

  In the future will anyone be able to run for president without getting scrutinized for every YouTube comment, Flickr photo, Facebook tag, or forum post they made in their entire life?

  Handles are great but these days it's too easy to track people down, even if they use multiples.