[anigbrowl]

The concept of one single "real" name is severely retarded and flies in the face of reality. We need to get rid of this concept, along with the illusion of a single identity.

Skkkkrrrrriiiiittttcccchhh

No, most of us are pretty happy with it because it works. OK, so you feel restricted by it, but you don't get to make the call on what people 'need' to do. These philosophical excursions are entertaining, but the fact is that your legal name is important because it enables the relationship between you and the complex society you inhabit. Money's an abstraction, but one which justifies itself daily by allowing people to buy and sell conveniently. Your legal name serves a similar function.

[GHFigs]

your legal name is important because it enables the relationship between you and the complex society you inhabit

While I agree with this statement, it also occurs to me that society may be becoming sufficiently complex to warrant a level of flexibility in naming that we don't have. A legal name may be important for interfacing with some things, but it does not follow that all things must interface with your legal name. Facebook and Google seem to think it should, but mostly because they're advertising companies, not because it's a requirement of the services they provide, or a requirement for all the kinds of human relationships they're offering to mediate.

This mechanical imposition of a single identity where it has not previously been mandatory is what gets people calling it "severely retarded", etc.

[malandrew]

There are entire groups of people for which this isn't necessarily the case. For example a significant portion of mainland Chinese people use a chosen western name when interacting with services that operate in English. Just because a given use case for names is not a use case common to your social strata, does not mean that it may be common within other groups.

[marshray]

Prove it.

Reply here with a link to a scan of your State-issued Driver's License and national passport proving that your legal name is, in fact, "anigbrowl" in the next 24 hours or your account will be deleted and you personally (i.e., your legal identity) will be perma-banned from this service.

(Not really, I don't admin HN at all. But you won't do it either.)

[chc]

I don't believe you're really responding to what Anig said. He didn't say that you weren't allowed to ever be called anything but your real name; he just said that your legal name does have some special status in society.

Similarly, I was recently informed that it was my Twitter birthday. It was not the same as my legal birthday. This does not, however, deprive my legal birthday its significance.

[marshray]

I interpreted slowpoke to be arguing that the single identity theory was oversimplistic and illusory, a position with which I agree.

anigbrowl then came in with his "Skkkkrrrrriiiiittttcccchhh No, most of us are pretty happy with it because it works" remarks, which I felt was rather flippant. My response was meant to show anigbrowl the logical conclusion of his position. It's not an unrealistic possibility either, I believe it's been at times the official policy of Facebook, Google Plus, Blizzard, and S. Korea.

My point is that, no, a single identity doesn't work and really it never did. We all use many different context-dependent identities as we interact in life.

[chc]

All you really pointed out is that his legal name is not "anigbrowl." And all he argued that was legal names do have some special importance, and it's out of touch with societal norms to say they don't. The fact that his name isn't "anigbrowl" is irrelevant to the fact that legal names have some special importance — both of these facts can coexist at once.

The logical conclusion of anigbrowl's position is not "You will be permabanned from this service if you can't produce a driver license reading 'anigbrowl'." This is an argument against a much more ridiculous stance than the one he took.

[tptacek]

'anigbrowl isn't anonymous or even pseudonymous. He just uses a nick. His name is Edward On-Robinson. It's linked from his profile; all you had to do was click on his name to find that out. Similarly, my name isn't "t".

My response is as germane to this thread as your comment was.

[marshray]

I did click on his name and check his profile but, alas, I didn't copy-and-paste to retrieve the URLs in his profile (which were not links) to see if any of them revealed his "real" name.

[anigbrowl]

I think you missed my point, rather badly. I'm saying the concept of a legal real name is a valid one, not that you should have to use it everywhere. Anigbrowl is not my real name; I don't think people should always be required to go under their real name, which is why I don't use Facebook, for example. The use of pseudonyms does not invalidate the concept of a legal identity.

[MartinCron]

Skkkkrrrrriiiiittttcccchhh

The record scratch sound effect is a bad enough affectation when used in movies and television. Your point is more than strong enough to stand alone without it.