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@hoefla
I have a facebook with my real name and I've posted around 20 times in 3 years. I never say anything of interest. I can't stand to spend much time there because no-one else says anything of interest either, it's mainly rather mundane stuff, chitchat between strangers who haven't met in 15 years. Nothing wrong with that, but it isn't here. Here is animated, provocative, entertaining, funny, infuriating, engaging and ultimately more meaningful and rewarding. I believe that this is enabled by pseudonyms.
You might just say I have boring friends. True enough. But most people feel the need to be boring when associated with their real names, in full view of all their friends and family and colleagues. All these different groups. I've always found it tricky to reconcile different scenes/spheres, I don't think I'm deceiving anyone, but I find it quite stressful to deal with these different groups of people, to the extent that in the one place where it happens (fb) I basically don't. Having a lifestyle/opinions that are at odds with most of my family does mean you tend to juggle. It would be great if I was out and proud and stuff the detractors, but I'm not. I have made a decision not to have those conversations.
This here forum is an interesting case. I'm not obviously associated with me, on here, but many people know the real life me, and there is no explicit protocol for how that information is managed. Plus there a lot of people here who know me a little but not well. This sends me into anxious spirals when viewing the friends requests on fb, because forumengers often talk about the forum, and it would be easy to mention me forum name on my facebook, which I do not want. Other online places I use are smaller circles, small enough that there is a shared consensus about privacy (and it is always that you do not reveal real names online, and you do not mention pseudonyms in connection with real names) or they are big places with Rules about what you can and cannot share.
Of course I say enough on here that it's very easy to work out who I am. If I meet you in the pub I will introduce myself by my real name and tell you about my job. But if you google my real name it doesn't lead here, and if you google hoefla it doesn't lead to the real me (at least, not on the first page), and that is good enough for me. My parents won't find this.
This is getting a bit TL:DR but in the case of Microcosm, think about what it's for. It's making little niches where communities can feel comfortable. It doesn't require much thinking to think of many groups where you could be providing a valuable service to facilitate a community, a niche, where they can communicate, where easy (relative) anonymity is really really important to the value and success of the community. I remember (maybe mis-remember) you saying that in microcosm you would be able to change your alias for different microcosms, so your fly-fishing persona and your queer activism persona and your cycle nerd persona don't have to be linked, if you don't want them to be.
It's good to have a place where you can be who you want to be.
that and all the "I want to be able to mouth off about work without my employer finding me" stuff, too.