[ChuckMcM]

I think one aspect of it is 'how complicated is your life?' I know queer/trans folks who were always anonymous because they were in the closet in their early life and needed that to survive, but the anonymity allowed them to connect with others that felt as they did. There are also trolls like this, who want to be accepted in their 'real' life but basically they find pleasure in tormenting others which they do so anonymously to avoid the repercussions of that behavior.

My online identity was pretty clear because both ARPAnet, and Sun Microsystems, required your username to be your actual name, and so pretty much all that was online and forever was tied to you no matter what. I've used anonymous names when playing online games because that community can be quite toxic. I counseled my daughters to do the same.

That said, I know an investigator who works for a law firm and they can pretty much unmask any name you throw at them to the real name, address, and other salient details. Which kind of weirds me out sometimes.

[anon839924]

> That said, I know an investigator who works for a law firm and they can pretty much unmask any name you throw at them to the real name, address, and other salient details. Which kind of weirds me out sometimes.

How do they do that?