pseudonyms, sincerity, cowardice

Discussion in 'Bickering' started by abu Hasan, Aug 1, 2015.

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  1. abu Hasan

    abu Hasan Administrator

    i usually take this route to spare myself lengthy expositions on why i use a pseudonym.

    ok, i am an anonymous coward.
    lets move forward.
     
    Harris786 and Ghulam Ali like this.
  2. Unbeknown

    Unbeknown Senior Moderator

    just to be clear this thread is not a criticism of shaykh asrar's comment but in-fact an endorsement of what he said. It is just a response to those who have used the 'if you dont reveal your identity you are a coward' attack before and might misuse shaykh asrar's words out of context to buttress their claims.
     
    Moriarty likes this.
  3. Unbeknown

    Unbeknown Senior Moderator

    Salam-e-Masnoon.

    This thread continues from here.

    Pseudonyms are only as bad as real names are good, which is to say that neither is on the extremities of the scale.

    It is cowardly to hide behind pseudonyms only if you have a personal stake in the outcome of a discussion/debate in which your opponent is publicly known and your real-self is a well-known figure in the circles which the discussion has a bearing on or is important to and yet you choose to enjoy the privilege of anonymity to escape accountability. More so if you are going out of the bounds of civility which would be embarrassing to you were it a face-to-face meeting (even if you were in the right).

    Or if a public figure uses a pseudonym to defend his/his shaykh's public persona while trying to give an impression of being an impartial/objective commentator.

    I do not think that it makes a difference if a 'nobody' writes under his real name unless he is here just to cause fitnah.

    We have seen each one of the above three scenarios play out on this very forum.

    Some food for thought:

    https://business.disqus.com/blog/whats-in-a-name-understanding-pseudonyms/

    http://www.wired.com/2014/04/why-we-need-online-alter-egos-now-more-than-ever/

    https://www.techdirt.com/articles/2...eudonymity-dangers-requiring-real-names.shtml (read this one only partially)

    http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/182969/me-and-my-pseudonym-jack-dunphy

    from the wired article:

    for those who might not be aware, our forum too has an option for viewing all posts made using a particular username. I have found it handy once or twice. Going through the bulk of posts made by a user gives a pretty good idea about his online persona, his leanings and the general quality of his contributions.

    feel free to disagree.
     
    Ghulam Ali likes this.

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