In my opinion, the spectrum of identity as it relates to the Internet is one of the most vexing and fascinating subjects confronting us without us really internalizing it.

Sherry Turkle wrote a couple books about it; Jaron Lanier wrote a couple essays. The big problem is that throughout history, the anonymous don't mix with the pseudonymous don't mix with the noteworthy. On the Internet, anonymous people can tweet at Kanye West all day. Combine that with Reddit, where you can go from anonymous to pseudonymous under the exact same conditions; there's no benefit to everyone knowing your handle but the more you participate, the more likely it is to happen. Unfortunately none of us really know how to act and it hurts a lot of people.

I'm a weird corner case: my pseudonym became an identity worth defending because I put a lot of me in it. That made it easy to attack, unfortunately. I've always written as if my real world identity would eventually be discovered and I try to be enough myself that I have nothing to be ashamed of. Anything I've said, I'd be comfortable saying in real life. That's not the way a lot of the Internet works, however, and when you have different groups of people operating under different ground rules, someone is going to get caught in the collision.

One of the things I like best about Hubski is that it functions on pseudonymity rather than anonymity. We have to know each other somewhat in order to have the conversations we have, and the site dynamics lend themselves to pseudonymous relationships. This is a place that encourages disclosure more than Reddit, 4chan, anywhere like that. It also makes the disagreements cut deeper.

I'm pretty good at locking down my identity and I've been doxed successfully at least three times. The stakes are much higher than they've ever been before; I no longer moderate a default because I wasn't 100% certain that my identity wouldn't be threatened. I also know that as a male I have an infinitely easier time on the Internet. Greater Creep Theory is fuckin' rough on the fair sex.

I think it's a choice we all have to make as carefully and in as well-considered a fashion as we can: how much of "you" can you risk? Not just here; Hubski is searchable so anything you're saying here, you're saying everywhere. That's the double-edged sword of Hubski - it encourages real social connections on an Internet designed to burn humanity to the ground.