Pen-Elayne on the Web

Identity Crisis

With all the sunshine and lollipops going on in the world, it's not my habit to dwell on the negative. Yet dwell I must, because it's my blog-spot and I'll schrei if I want to.

Today's Hang-Up, kids, is Screen Names and the Posters Who Use Them. Now, the Internet is a powerful force, anyone in the world with online access can potentially read any of our spewings. So I can see where offering dangerous opinions under your real name might intimidate some people (even though I still think if They really want to get you a pseudonymous firewall ain't gonna stop 'em). I can also see the fun of playing around with screen names, just goofing off in IRC or whatever, it's fun to pretend you're someone else, it's like a role-playing bit. So, I have no intrinsic problems with the concept of fake screen names.

It's the application that bothers me.

Maybe this is peculiar to comic book message boards (although I doubt it), but it saddens me how many people register under fake names seemingly for the primary purpose of lobbing cheap shots and insults and nasty insinuations at others. Now, I'm not immune to indulging in this behavior myself (although you'd think I'd outgrown it, but alas, we all have button-pushers), but when that happens, as much as I'm not proud of it, at least I take personal responsibility for acting like an a-hole. Not so these anonymous pseudo-trolls who sign on as comic book characters (there seem to be an alarming number of apparently male PTs registering with the names of female characters; I don't even want to get into the psychology of that one) or use other wacky handles just so they can say things like "So-and-so is a company flak and you shouldn't believe them" (and I should believe a PT instead?) or "everybody knows this person's work sucks" (everybody also consisting of a bunch of PTs, I suppose) or "this person is just plain evil and you're fools for being taken in."

The thing about all these accusations, beyond their inherent rudeness, is that they're meant as authoritative statements, but when you choose to use a pseudonym you willingly give up your claim to authority. And you undermine your credibility every time you don't offer any sort of actual identity when politely asked - particularly when your response is to turn around and attack the credibility or motives of the person asking. A number of pseudonymous PTs don't seem to understand the difference between someone calmly observing that fake names coupled with insulting words often present an uphill battle on the twin fronts of authority and credibility (certainly not an insurmountable one, but an uphill one nonetheless), and someone mocking them or berating them or talking down to them for their choice to throw shit whilst hiding behind a handle (in other words, engaging in the same behavior of which they're usually guilty). Or, heaven forfend, trying to censor them!

It's hard not to come to the conclusion that, of the many folks who employ online handles because they're fun and enjoyable, this probably-small subset that uses them in such a cowardly manner feels so highly insulted because deep down they know what they're doing ain't right. I'm just kind of amused that they take the observations so over-the-top personally if they're only, after all, anonymous personae.