[egypturnash]

Everything described in this history could have happened just as easily if he'd posted everything under the name "Raver Tomato".

Aliases give you the option of more easily disassociating things from your legal identity, as well as making it harder for people to find all the embarassing shit you posted when you were a teenager.

[0xferruccio]

The core message is “The internet is great at organizing information and making you find things you like. If you express your true interests, like minded people will discover you.”

If you prefer using an alias that’s totally cool!

[pwinnski]

His experience would also likely have been very different had he been a she, in which case "raver tomato" would have been much preferred.

[egypturnash]

YEP

[tartoran]

That’s what I was thinking as well. Using one’s real name adds the possibility of that being used against you as well as feeding spammers and other nefarious actors.

[dncornholio]

Wondering if this is some state-sponsored post to prevent people entering bogus information online. Everything in this article is true, except the "Lesson learned"

[egypturnash]

It’s not as if corporations haven’t had their own reasons to push for “real names” to make tracking easier.