Lastly, sometimes I get mad and like to say F*CK. Can’t do that at work.

I’m stepping in late here, so maybe nobody but me will see this comment – I’m interested in the statement quoted above, because my perception is that things are completely the opposite. It seems to take a great amount of effort to conceal an identity online and manage for any possible breach – at least if that is the goal. A lot of people seem to use pseudonyms out of convenience, but without the express goal of deliberately concealing their identity.

I guess I just don’t understand the need to conceal to begin with – I certainly write for my own pleasure first and foremost, but I can’t think of anything that I want to write that I wouldn’t want somebody else to see. I don’t think it’s just an academia thing – working in industry I must certainly be mindful of potential consequences from people in management who might take exception with something I write or my (occasiona) use of company property to do so. Probably it’s because I just like to write about bugs and nature and stuff and generally avoid getting involved in political/social debates that I don’t feel the paranoia – if I cared to be more opinionated on “hot” issues maybe it would be different.

I’m not sure I really added anything to the discussion other than I guess why some people don’t feel the need for anonymity – for what it’s worth.

And homebuggardener – thank you so much for your kind words!

A good, informative rant (like the green potato rant that first got me hooked on this blog), however, can be excellent blogging, anonymous or not. A little bit of gratuitous name-calling and bias is tolerable: that’s what people are like. But I don’t understand the apparent need to be Manichean. If only life were littered with good and bad choices.

I’ve kept my names more or less off my blogs, mostly in the hopes that it will reduce the number of crank comments, but it would take somewhere between no and little effort to find out who I am (I noticed from one of Bug Girl’s older posts that someone outed her to her employers a while ago). I thought a blog would be a good way to advertise some of the work my current employer is doing, but my suggestions fell on deaf ears – quite possibly because blogs have a very bad reputation. So, I started my own blogs and let my employers know about them immediately. They were not happy, but didn’t have a fit – just warned me not to put any of their work on it.

Believe me, I am PROFOUNDLY grateful that there were no cell phone cameras during my undergraduate years.