On Pseudonyms
(this is a test post to see how this does with some long form markdown)
This post was originally written during the “nymwars” on Google+, before Google recognized (through protest, and just plain looking at the facts before them) that using “real names” does not lead to civility. I've done some reformatting and updated a few references, but otherwise this is as it appeared in July, 2011. However everything here applies to existing and future social networks, most obviously including Facebook.
At the time I wrote this, it wasn't clear that anonymity offline was going to erode so quickly. All of the reasons I specify here for requiring online anonymity apply even more strongly for anonymity in real life. We have a troubled future ahead of us.