Do You Know Who Wrote This?

Well, of course you do. I have an entire page explaining who I am.

Even if Do You Know Who Wrote This? hadn't been trailed in every spare minute of Radio 4's broadcasting last week, I think I'd have made an effort to catch it. The play looks at online identities and the anonymity that people hide behind when they use forums, chat sites and social networking. Ten years ago I think that would have been a fairly niche audience but the explosion of social networking in the last decade has brought to the fore a lot of issues that were previously the territory of small, cliquey groups of geeks. I mean, I've even heard the word "trolling" used on Today. Not used correctly but it's a start.

I know a little about this subject because, for several years, I worked as an online moderator for a reasonably large American company. I spent my evenings patrolling discussion forums in search of the sorts of comments that no one wants their children exposed to. I've seen my share of spam attacks, "inappropriate content", flame wars and trolling. More trolling than you could possibly imagine.

The number of people who used their real names on the forum was probably close to a dozen, out of many thousands. It just wasn't done. Not by the members and not by the moderators either. Even when I left I didn't reveal my real name, all the users ever knew about me was that I was female and European. Anonymity was an essential tool to how we worked and an essential component to the discussions that went on, not so much because people wanted to hide their personality but because those real life names had no relevance to the world we were in.

It may sound like a lot of people hiding behind aliases but it was anything but. When people post under a name that has no gender, age, race or nationality attached to it then the responses are based on the content of that post, not the preconceptions that might go along with that name.

Using an alias to shield bad behaviour is a short term thing. If you're in a true community, with active members and an expectation of reasonable discussion then the reputation of your username is as important as the reputation of your real name. Strong communities are self-policing because they have a social code that's equivalent to those we have in real life. If you flame others then people won't take you seriously. It's irrelevant whether that name can be connected back to a real identity because your online presence will be discredited among your peers.

We should aspire to communicate in communities where content is key. A person's opinions, self-expression and online behaviour is what matters. The actual identity of the person typing the keys should be the least relevant of all things. If what you're saying is worth saying then people will respect you for it, regardless of the name that you use.

The play did a good (and funny) job of exploring the reach of our online interactions and the chaos that absolute truth might bring about. But I think it's worth pointing out that, in a strong community with clearly defined ground rules, flaming and trolling isn't an inevitable consequence of anonymity.

Which brings me back to my original point: do you know who wrote this?

Yes, because I made a concerted decision to write this blog under my own name and not an alias. I believe that if I'm going to post my opinions about things, especially if those things are creative works by people who might not agree with my opinions, that I should do that under my own name. I realise it may sound hypocritical when I've just defended anonymity but, for as long as the patterns and programmes I post about have a real name behind them, I think they deserve a real name in return.