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What if, by law every last person had to use their real name on the internet?

S

Satires

Android Expert
I often wonder this. I know, I think too much.... lol

Let me write up a scenario here and then you can chime in with your your opinions and concerns or lack thereof. :)

Let's just hypothetically say that a global law required your full name and state and county of residence (Not your house address) to be displayed publicly anywhere you utter a word.

And let's just say that they tweaked the internet with every last ISP to show that info in some fashion and during the sign up of anyweb site, you have no choice or option to use a fake name because the ISP knows it to begin with.

How do you think this would change the face of the internet?

This would mean, you would be fully accountable for what you say on the internet!

I think we've all seen places on the web where things can get down right nasty in forums, blog posts and blog comments.

Let's not forget about a mandatory global law to show i.d. and use a thumb print to use ANY type of wifi hotspots and your i.d. and thumb print is linked into a system to once again, force your name and general area of residence. (Thumb print provides protection against someone else trying to use your i.d. at a public wifi hot spot)

Self reflection. There's a lot of things over the years I would have never written. There's a lot of trolls I wouldn't have battled just for fun.

So what do you think?

Do you think at least 50 percent of the nastiness in the form of text would be reduced?

Do you think people would begin to think twice before hitting the enter button to upload their text (Any and all types of text, forums, comments, blog posts, articles etc)?

I'm not for or against such a law, this is just a scenario I have been tossing around in my head.

So, what's your thoughts?
 
Don't see how it can be enforced. What about a nom de plume like Mark Twain?

If someone wants to be hurtful and nasty, they will find other ways. They can find your address and email and stalk and harass you privately if they so desire.

Change mine to U. R. Fullasheet
 
zuben el genub said:
Don't see how it can be enforced. What about a nom de plume like Mark Twain?

If someone wants to be hurtful and nasty, they will find other ways. They can find your address and email and stalk and harass you privately if they so desire.

Change mine to U. R. Fullasheet
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It's just a hypothetical question. Your reason alone would make people think twice about what they say on the web. :D
 
I predate the web and was already posting in government and university and operating system venues by the time the web started. Many of us back then did use our names when the web started up and would speak freely about our locations and so forth, thinking, what could possibly go wrong?

I don't regret anything I've said online.

I do regret that whack job that law enforcement had to subdue who showed up my work place wanting to get even with the guy who had given him bad dreams because of - frankly - who knows why? (Maybe his shrinks, I don't know.)

He was a dangerous nutjob and I got off lucky.

And that's the flip side to the openness idea there, my friend. :) ;)
 
EarlyMon said:
I predate the web and was already posting in government and university and operating system venues by the time the web started. Many of us back then did use our names when the web started up and would speak freely about our locations and so forth, thinking, what could possibly go wrong?

I don't regret anything I've said online.

I do regret that whack job that law enforcement had to subdue who showed up my work place wanting to get even with the guy who had given him bad dreams because of - frankly - who knows why? (Maybe his shrinks, I don't know.)

He was a dangerous nutjob and I got off lucky.

And that's the flip side to the openness idea there, my friend. :) ;)
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Good answer, this is part of the feed back I'm looking for, the what ifs. :D
 
Satires said:
Good answer, this is part of the feed back I'm looking for, the what ifs. :D
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Yeah, when it started at CERN, it was a venue for publishing our papers online.

Together with the university crowd working the emerging backbone, we saw it all as a venue for our global village - true freedom of the press that we could all access and use for our own voice.

I'd picked up the first Mosaic book (I found one just now published in 1995, I think mine pre-dated that a bit), complete with source code so you could build a browser if you could debug the code and ran X Windows, and scoured the planet using ftp and gopher to get pieces for webservers and launched the first one on ISP's servers using their /tmp area (until caught lol and then helped them with theirs) and also one of the first ones for a US gov agency.

It was all about the openness.

And back then, we had a sort of account signature that you could access with the finger utility - we'd all put pithy phrases, our contact info, etc etc there, including a web address if we had one.

Freedom of speech in its purest form.

Whether discussing social, political, scientific or technical issues, many of us said the same thing - this is what the philosophers meant by open forums, and this is what the founding fathers meant by freedom of the press.

When the creeps came out of the woodwork, we quickly re-discovered that the founding fathers also used pseudonyms, probably many for the equivalent reason in their day.

Kind of sad though. It was nice back then to know who you were talking to and where they were really coming from.

But - it is what it is. :o
 
EarlyMon said:
Yeah, when it started at CERN, it was a venue for publishing our papers online.

Together with the university crowd working the emerging backbone, we saw it all as a venue for our global village - true freedom of the press that we could all access and use for our own voice.

I'd picked up the first Mosaic book (I found one just now published in 1995, I think mine pre-dated that a bit), complete with source code so you could build a browser if you could debug the code and ran X Windows, and scoured the planet using ftp and gopher to get pieces for webservers and launched the first one on ISP's servers using their /tmp area (until caught lol and then helped them with theirs) and also one of the first ones for a US gov agency.

It was all about the openness.

And back then, we had a sort of account signature that you could access with the finger utility - we'd all put pithy phrases, our contact info, etc etc there, including a web address if we had one.

Freedom of speech in its purest form.

Whether discussing social, political, scientific or technical issues, many of us said the same thing - this is what the philosophers meant by open forums, and this is what the founding fathers meant by freedom of the press.

When the creeps came out of the woodwork, we quickly re-discovered that the founding fathers also used pseudonyms, probably many for the equivalent reason in their day.

Kind of sad though. It was nice back then to know who you were talking to and where they were really coming from.

But - it is what it is. :o
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Oh, I can imagine...

It's scary how many nut jobs are out there. I was web friends on another forum with some people and two of them turned out to be genuine cases. They did nothing to me, I saw what they were doing to others...

You never know who's going to stick it to ya online or otherwise anymore! lol

I sure would hate to be stalked for something as petty as hating a certain phone or PS...

Wait, let me ponder that for a moment...

(Thinking)

OMG! could you imagine that! Some poor bastard getting killed for hating an iPhone or an android? I could see that on the news now! lol

An argument stemming on a forum brings death and tragedy to this local family. A fan boy of (--------) stalked his victem who made vile remarks about his phone and killed him!

Bwa! ha ha ha! I could see that actually happening as petty as people can get. Imagine that, killed for ragging on some Guy's phone! lol :D
 
I think there would be a lot less trolling and flame wars. But I also think we'd soon have people writing scripts and programs to spoof this content as well.

--Seymour Butts. ;)
 
9to5cynic said:
I think there would be a lot less trolling and flame wars. But I also think we'd soon have people writing scripts and programs to spoof this content as well.

--Seymour Butts. ;)
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I'll definitely buy this response. :) I could see this happening...
 
The people who need to know our real names already do any how. Not hard for a hacker to get your ip address and find out what they want about you anyways. It's not those that concern me though after a small search into me they would see I'm just a poor soul living in a fish bowl. :D

I wouldn't change my name though took me this long to get used to it changing it now would confuse the hell out of me :D
 
argedion said:
The people who need to know our real names already do any how. Not hard for a hacker to get your ip address and find out what they want about you anyways. It's not those that concern me though after a small search into me they would see I'm just a poor soul living in a fish bowl. :D

I wouldn't change my name though took me this long to get used to it changing it now would confuse the hell out of me :D
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Doesn't one have to have "Connections" to get info about someones i.p. address?

Or do you mean if they hack into your computer?
 
I, like Early, pre date the internet. I sysoped for my local university's BBS. Everyone's name was attached to echoed and local mail and you were accountable for your behavior. I moderated a number of conferences (narrow interest threads or one topic chat rooms) There were, as there are now, differences in opionions... which makes life worthy of discussion IMO. The difference was, it was a rare occasion when a discussion became heated or uncivil. Perhaps it was being held accountable for one's behavior... Perhaps it was such a narrowed sampling of man that being out of line felt awkward.

Today's internet, and it's veil of deception, gives users a freedom to be whoever and behave however. Alter egos abound. If accountability could be enforced, it would completely change the face of the internet... and, take the fun factor out of it for many.
 
I really like hearing about you *cough*old*cough* guy's pre-internet stories. (;)) They are interesting. I'm a bit bummed that I missed out on BBSs. *shrug* Once a week, you pre-internet guys should get together and talk about the old days.

A 'Pre-Internet' podcast. A web2.0 product about the web 0.1... :D

I'd listen to that. ;) :p
 
I believe some time ago, some user on the WoW forum used his real name and people just dug up a lot of dirt on him and posted it publicly. I believe that incident contributed to WoW deciding not to require users use their real names.

If real names were required on the internet, it would just make it a more serious place and less fun overall. It would really impact a lot free speech as people would feel that they cannot speak freely about many things for risk of repercussions. I think that removing anonymity internet wide would be a disservice to users. You can always just have forums where people are required to use their real names. People can choose whether to use those or others where they can use a pseudonym.
 
mikedt said:
I don't think there's really true anonymity on the interwebs. If the FBI, NSA. Ministry of State Security, Interpol, MI5, etc. really doesn't like what you put on a forum or something, they'll have ways to get you. In China, the intention is that there is no anonymity on the internet.
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I automatically assumed I'm being watched or have the ability to be watched and located by government agencies. There are things I would never say on the web! lol

The funny thing is, I felt this way from day one. :)
 
Stuntman said:
I believe some time ago, some user on the WoW forum used his real name and people just dug up a lot of dirt on him and posted it publicly. I believe that incident contributed to WoW deciding not to require users use their real names.

If real names were required on the internet, it would just make it a more serious place and less fun overall. It would really impact a lot free speech as people would feel that they cannot speak freely about many things for risk of repercussions. I think that removing anonymity internet wide would be a disservice to users. You can always just have forums where people are required to use their real names. People can choose whether to use those or others where they can use a pseudonym.
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I can easily agree with your input. :)
 
Satires said:
I automatically assumed I'm being watched or have the ability to be watched and located by government agencies. There are things I would never say on the web! lol

The funny thing is, I felt this way from day one. :)
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Remember, it's not paranoia when they're really out to get you.

Bonus points if you can name the source without a Google search. ;) :) :D
 
was it Mel Gibson in Conspiracy theory...i think Julia Roberts was in it.??? sounds familiar.


yeah.. it would be great if we could trust the public with our info.. but there are those that can do bad things with it . some just for fun. example: using your info to subscribe you to porn and bad websites..so they can spam your email.
 
dan330 said:
was it Mel Gibson in Conspiracy theory...i think Julia Roberts was in it.??? sounds familiar.


yeah.. it would be great if we could trust the public with our info.. but there are those that can do bad things with it . some just for fun. example: using your info to subscribe you to porn and bad websites..so they can spam your email.
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I never heard of the movie. Is it good?
 
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