Anonymity

Jeff wrote a nice piece about anonymity on the web you can read here. This post was kicked off by the Kathy Sierra death threats. Everyone's talking about them. Google it if you want more insight. I'm actually more intrigued by Jeff's thoughts on anonymity and the web. I have to agree that I've been one to always post using my name and be someone "legitimate" in a comments thread. I never quite understood the point of writing something and not connecting it back to myself. If I have to hide behind a pseudonym, then I'm doing something very wrong or at least commenting in a way I wouldn't do in person. I presume there's a crowd out there abusing this but in general, I believe it could be a trend that people start refusing to be "anonymous" on the web. I've always actually quite disliked the idea of anonymity on the web. If I'm there, I want to be relevant. If I'm just surfing, sure, I don't necessarily want some tracking software marking every stop I make (in this regard there is a very legitimate argument for anonymity). But when I am participating in exchange via the web, then I do not mind being held responsible for my exchanges. I can imagine there are tons of people who would argue against me on this but this is my take on the web and I'm sticking to it! Maybe, just maybe some others will too in order to rid ourselves of the crap as in Kathy's case.