It's a good point. I have my reasons for attempting at least a facade of anonymity. They may not be good ones, but so it goes. Primarily I do so from the argument of "you can always provide information later, but you can't take it back once it's out there".

I concur - just put the false name in quotes. I don't care what you call me, just don't misspell the link URL, know what I mean?

Bill, I hope your tone here is tongue-in-cheek; I know mine was in writing the comment.

It's of no concern to me whether or not someone blogs under a pseudonym (spelled correctly this time). At OAN, though, we have a tradition of attributing posts to people's real names, where available. If the author truly desires to be pseudonymous, then we'll attribute them that way. But often, I am not sure this is the case; rather, the author has simply hidden their name somewhere on the blog (or nowhere at all). My comment is directed at these people, who would prefer (or at least not mind) if we attributed their real name, but have made it difficult for us to do so.

Gavin, I meant the "damn kids/stfu noob" stuff to be obviously over the top, but underneath that I was making a serious point. Complaints about online pseudonyms usually boil down to either attacks on privacy or appeals to authority.

I realize from your reply here that you intended neither, but I didn't pick up on your intended tone in the original post.

My feeling is that if someone has made their meatspace name hard to find, then they prefer you to use the nick, or simply don't care. In which case, I see no reason to go hunting for a "real" name, just -- as PA says -- get the link right.

I think you may mean appeals to authoritah!