managing and protecting nyms...

[Bill Stewart]

At 09:52 AM 11/6/2009, John Young wrote:
>There have been several anonymous contributors here who
>have developed pretty good reputations by the quality of their
>contributions, technical, philosophical, literary, even occasionally,
>fair-minded wisdom.
>
>Some have been subsquently identified -- by self-revelation or
>by leaks -- others remain unknown. Fortunately their contributions
>endure (where are the archives these days, if any?).

Where are the archives??  We thought *you* had them!

With anonymous contributors, we don't know if it's one or many,
and it's hard to give any reputation except to individual postings,
though I suppose somebody could assert that he/she is the poster of a 
previous article.

On the other hand, Pseudonymous contributors can acquire reputation
rather more easily.   Some actually show up in person -
Lucky Green and Black Unicorn are notable,
and "Lawrence from Boulder" once came to a meeting without
anybody commenting out loud about whether he was L.Detweiler
until after he'd left (it was fun watching Eric Hughes do a double-take
when he realized who it had probably been.)

Detweiler was an especially valuable person to have had on the lists -
he raised questions about what identity is really about and how to deal with
rabid trolls several years before the September That Never Ended
and before spam was really widespread, and while I can't say we really
came up with good enough methodology, it was a good warmup.