Should members of a forum be forced to use real names?
Blackmagicdesign, the developers of the extraordinary non-linear and finishing editor, DaVinci Resolve, run a strict real names policy.
We absolutely believe that the best way to run a forum and for people to have good conversations is to know exactly who they are speaking with. Which is why we require real names to be used, and which is in the agreement everyone signed when joining.
I’m a member there and the policy makes sense to me. The conversations are professional and cordial, and rarely go too far off-topic.
Nonetheless, one member took great exception to that policy arguing:
I’ve been able to Google the real names and usernames of various forum members and find:
- places of employment
- social media accounts
- dick pix
- racist slurs
- social media accounts with dick pix and racist slurs
More than enough to blackmail. Besides which people post their logs and details about the hardware and software they use here (including logs), it’s a disaster waiting to happen.
What a hot button list! One almost wants to take a shower after reading it. Still if a forum member has such pictures and/or illegal speech under his/her real name, Blackmagicdesign forum policy would seem to be the least of his/her problems, professional and legal.
The unhappy member Michael’s position seems strange, almost nonsensical, to me.
First, the Blackmagicdesign forum is a professional forum for video editors and cinematographers, we do not hide under rocks.
Second, were someone to lead a second life as a BDSM dominant or sub or transvestite, I would think that person would have the foresight to use a completely different identity than his or her real identity.
Third, if someone were to want to maintain multiple professional personalities (one personality as a wealthy heir or powerful CEO, another personality as an itinerant video editor), surely that person would maintain such separate personas.
Fourth, if someone practices radical political activity completely divorced from their real identity and professional life, inevitably that person would have a different identity for their political self.
It’s not like Blackmagic will chase down light forum users verifying our birth certificates. Of course, if there’s a particularly toxic forum member who seems to be posting under a poorly conceived alias used just at their site, yes, there’s a good chance Blackmagicdesign will be suspend that member.
Why not? Who would have a problem with this?
If you are either a publisher or a senior moderator of an online community or public forum, I’d really suggest not overthinking this and once there’s a reasonable system in place just deal with the complainers one at a time. There are these privacy maniacs running around trying to make people anonymous on forums everywhere. They are a weird minority, something like the nutjobs who want all of us to wear medical masks or veils wherever we go. Nobody is forcing members to interact on forums, they can do their lessons or use the software and not raise their heads.
A situation with forums and comments filled with names like the PurpleBunny, HotLick, MilesDavisGhost, LickMyPick, ScrewUniversal, JazzKing will quickly degenerate to the lowest common denominator.
This is not to say I am against privacy. People who seek privacy can and should build online personas behind which they can hide. From years participating in political, arts and sports forums professionally and as a moderator, those who can’t bother to take that trouble to obscure their identity generally just want to vandalise the public space or annoy everyone with repetitive, nagging demands for help (when there’s excellent documentation readily available).
Of course, this covers professional forums and not forums to discuss private vices or psychological issues. In that case, anonymity, pseudonyms and alternative personas should be the order of the day. Such forums will require more moderation and will still show worst behaviour. It’s hard enough to run a clean professional public space without offering all visitors anonymity.
Alec Kinnear
Alec has been helping businesses succeed online since 2000. Alec is an SEM expert with a background in advertising, as a former Head of Television for Grey Moscow and Senior Television Producer for Bates, Saatchi and Saatchi Russia.
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