• I'm completely against this.

    My reasons are basically due to the following:

    1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberstalking#Of_women
    2. http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/helen-lewis-hasteley/2011/11/rape-threats-abuse-sex-female

    I've known, in the real world!, people who have lost jobs, been hounded out of their homes, and been approached and threatened in the street by people who obtained their personal identities after associating them with their messageboard posts. None of the victims of this treatment had done anything to "deserve" it. In all but one case they were women, and in every case they were treated in this way purely because they were able to be identified by people who do this kind of thing for sport.

    Anonymity can increase the likelihood that people will behave badly because they can't be traced. It also increases the likelihood that people can talk about things that make them feel vulnerable because they don't need to fear repercussions. By enforcing communication only through a verifiable identity you deny these people the opportunity to discuss highly personal information without fear of having that information tied to them as individuals. Not everybody wants to discuss that kind of information, and that's fine. Those that do shouldn't be penalised or chilled by the threat of being outed.

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