World of Warcraft maker to end anonymous forum logins

[Gnizmo]

ameratsu said:

Apart from what I've already mentioned, I have read enough stories about chans and other internet sites finding out the identities of certain people online and collectively making their lives a living hell for one reason or another. Quite often these groups are able to find out real identities from information given out by that particular user. But forcing people to divulge first and last name for a purpose as trivial as posting on an internet gaming forum is simply a terrible idea, and could make it easier to harass people in real life.

Here is a recent example that I found pretty disgusting: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ba5t0/iama_person_who_has_been_badly_harassed_by_4chan/

worth looking at as well is how much information one blogger dug up on a number of Blizzard employees with only a first and last name: http://asnowstormbyanyothername.blogspot.com/

Anecdotal evidence is countered by other anecdotal evidence and gets us no where. ioi has the collective of neogaf very pissed at him and he still freely gives out his name. Being able to dig up a lot of information on someone isn't overly impressive either. You can often do the same with just an email address, and facebook gives you far far more which is very, very widespread. These threats are a greater concern, and can escalate to far more dangerous levels with someone you know face to face, but I doubt you give out a pseudonym to new people you meet.