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What if the internet wasn't anonymous?


xNoName

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Saw a similar topic at another forum, and I thought why not post it here at Kametsu. I, also, would like to see your opinion on the matter. Here goes the quote:

I had some passing thoughts today about anonymity on the internet, and that I like being anonymous. But what if the internet was not anonymous, and you were publicly associated with your online persona(s)? I'm not saying this is going to happen, this is purely "what if", but I have to wonder what would be different. We would certainly start seeing changes in the real world (likely along the lines of commercial and government institutions blatantly breaching our privacy), but that's not what I'm interested in. I'm speculating purely on how the internet itself would change, what kinds of activity would see an increase, and what kinds a decrease.

While I wouldn't change much about my online activities - that is, aside from piracy - if they could be easily linked to my real identity, I don't believe everyone would be the same.

So, what are your opinions on the matter? First of all, before anyone says "a lot less troll", I would like to contradict because there are always those people who don't give a damn.

Discuss.

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If any of you readers out there feel like you don't have an opinion on this yet due to lack of education, I'd recommend reading Cory Doctorow's "Little Brother". I've read it at least thrice now, and continue to be thrilled with it. Also, IT'S FREE! Google it, and you'll find that the author has released most of his books free to the public. (My personal recommendation is to read it in the basic HTML format and use the "Colors" extension if you're using Google Chrome.)

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I feel that this would simply make forums close to non-existant. People post since they see the internet as a pool of knowledge, but never actually want other people to know their problems or opinions or whatever. So I feel that everything would be more formal, stricter, and less people would use it.

O and online porn wouldnt go well

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I don't think much would change. Have you seen Facebook? That's essentially what would happen if the internet weren't anonymous. People are stupid. They feel they are safe as long as people can't see them, even if they are online.

It wouldn't be entirely the same, but I don't think what would happen on the internet would be that different.

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If the internet weren't anonymous I figure there would be alot less trolling, alot less internet heroes that *have* to be right about everything, and the "fakery" (aka facebooks, myspaces etc.) would thrive by 200%. Yeah i like it better the way it is =)

But if you think about it, technically it isn't 100% anonymous, just because you're in front of a computer screen, since there are things like IP tracers that, for those inclined to do so, can figure out where you live without too much difficulty. Your ISP provider probably also has a backlog of history info and such, if you combine that with the indexes from search engines you can find out alot of things about a certain person, specially today when everyone is so prone to sharing their life on blogs and so forth.

I remembered a quote from .hack// that might fit: "a loser on the internet is still a loser in real life". just because you aren't seen physically doesn't mean we can't get an ideia of who you are and how you look at things.

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  • 9 months later...

Sweet, I don't have to make a topic about this.

I found this infographic (these are still cool, right?) that was posted about a year ago regarding being anonymous vice transparent on the Internet. I found it while looking at the "moot" tag on Tumblr. (BECAUSE I CAN)

Anyway, I found it relevant to the conversation. I'm not for an entirely transparent Internet--I just don't really see the point in it. There are so many people with the same first and last names! Sucks to be someone with a name like Joseph Smith!

Zuckerberg's assertion that maintaining two or more identities on the Internet displays a lack of integrity seems rather simplistic. The person I am on this forum is the same person I am off-line, in chat, Facebook, or anywhere else, really. Just because I don't splatter my name everywhere and go by aliases doesn't mean I'm being unfaithful to who I am. Just because I don't link every single profile I use together doesn't mean I'm being dishonest. It usually just means I'm lazy or don't intend to regularly maintain a profile on some site I only wanted to check out for a couple of days.

And yes, "fewer trolls" seems to be a rather irrelevant argument as there will always be people who blatantly don't care what they say or how it affects other people.

Take, for an instance, a situation I encountered a while ago on Facebook. I was friends with a coworker who is notorious for deleting people off her friends list for spurious reasons. She posted about how some woman who died from faulty breast implants deserved to die because the woman... had... breast implants? I don't remember her line of thought, just that it seemed really unnecessary to say that someone deserved to die when there weren't really any details as to what happened. Anyway, I just commented on the link, saying something rather mild but ultimately disagreeing with her. She ends the conversation by posting a largely irrelevant paragraph and then de-friends me. The end!

So, I wouldn't worry about people being less honest or less willing to express themselves when using their real name and identity. You know all those people who proudly state, "I'm a bitch, deal with it"? All those people who slapped such pithy, garbage statements like that all over their Myspace profiles with gleeful abandon as though it were a good thing? They did it with their real name, did it with thousands of pictures of themselves on their profile.

And yes, as kaoru points out, most people are rarely truly anonymous online.

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Hm I think "personality" wise I would stay the same. Now "content" wise it might change a bit.

First off I try to be true to myself wherever I go online and offline so I keep the same personality. I think Twitter might be one of the places that my "content" would change though. Twitter is strictly for internet friends. Some of my IRL friends always feel bad when I say that (I say it in a more tactful way ok!) though but I think it's for the better. Sometimes I say things about my IRL friends on there that might be weird. There's nothing mean really, just I wouldn't want someone like one of my female friends to know, "Meh sitting here will some people talking about doing their nails... I can't relate".

I guess the other thing that would change would be like anime downloads and stuff. That's a given lol. We would all be doomed!

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You suckers might be doomed, but I won't.

Jokes.

But yes, that's just human nature to adjust content based on audience and location. The way I talk to Java is not the same way I would talk to my commander or flight chief! The way I talk to my good friends in private is not the way I generally talk to people here on the forum! (The main difference is I swear a lot more.) And the things I talk about on my Tumblr, I don't cross post onto my Facebook. It's just good manners. I don't impose my fandoms onto people on Facebook and they generally treat me with the same respect--I don't clutter their pages with Homestuck and I don't have to see a bunch of Twilight stuff. Everyone wins. The volume of my voice in a church or bookstore is far more controlled than it is when I'm at home.

It's the same reason I tend to be quiet in social situations with people I'm not familiar with, because I don't know my audience.

People like to have secrets and places to go where they can vent and not be judged for it. That's why so many sites for secrets and confessions exist and why those communities tend to be far stricter on treating people with respect and being judgmental so people feel safe expressing themselves. Even your best friend in the whole wide world might accidentally let one of your secrets slip or judge you for any of your confessions.

Edited by Emotional Outlet
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of course the internet isn't completely anonymous, but the illusion that it is, is a good thing.

there are many types of people, there are the tell all people who tell everybody about everything on the net. Loves or hate themselves and just tell the whole world.

Then there are others who find solace being able to be their true selves without persecution on the net. Without having to put up a persona, they can be the person the truly want to be.Just like Books and anime, the internet, can be a escape from their constance of reality. Life is not so simple that you can be who you truly want to be without consequences. Here you can be that person without fear of being judged and the illusion of anonymity keeps that alive.

Then again, that is just my humble opinion on the subject.

Edited by Reptoholic
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  • 2 weeks later...

I found this infographic

Nice infographic, I think the most pertinent piece of information in it is the "Who Benefits?" section. For transparency the benefits are for copyright holders, advertisers and self promoters - essentially this is beneficial for businesses. For anonymous the benefits are content, whistle blowers and collaborative thinking - beneficial for society / the people.

I for one believe in an anonymous internet which polices itself, not an internet policed by government run for big businesses.

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I think that, if the internet were not anonymous... People would finally understand that, yes, there ARE girls on the internet. I also think there would be fewer Analgirl121 style names, because well... I can't imagine that being a fun name to have if everyone knows you're Bob from accounting.

File sharing of any kind would fall back into the old ways of trading CDs you actually bought with friends who didn't buy.

And this place wouldn't exist, because without the downloads to encourage donations and advertisers, it wouldn't survive. Which means I wouldn't have met any of you. And that would be sad.

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I don't think the OP was trying to assert that it was. The premise is what would the Internet be like if you had to be Joe Blow or identified as Joe Blow at every site you have an account at. For the average user, they're not necessarily going to know that the person using HawtBoothBabes4Eva on Tumblr is the same person as NarutoRox on GameFAQs is the same person as IHateBananas on Youtube, especially if there's no indication otherwise that they are. Yes, you could do some sleuthing and find out that they all are the same person, but that's not the point of the thread, haha.

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  • 3 years later...
On 01/10/2011, 20:15:11, xNoName said:

Saw a similar topic at another forum, and I thought why not post it here at Kametsu. I, also, would like to see your opinion on the matter. Here goes the quote:

So, what are your opinions on the matter? First of all, before anyone says "a lot less troll", I would like to contradict because there are always those people who don't give a damn.

 

Discuss.

Don't they call that the Dark net or Deep web?

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  • 1 month later...

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