zlacker

Agreed. While we still legally have freedom of speech, the real-life ramifications for speaking your mind can be enormous these days. Try being an outspoken Trump supporter in the tech bubble and see what happens. That's why I exclusively engage in internet discourse using pseudonyms like this one. When I was growing up, it was common sense that you don't use your real name on the internet. Now people have surrendered common sense to the social media companies and happily (and ignorantly) identify themselves in their posts, comments, tweets, blogs, etc. Many of them have suffered drastic consequences for doing so.

>>montyf+(OP)
>When I was growing up, it was common sense that you don't use your real name on the internet.

That may have been true in some circles and at some times, but in early (especially pre-Web) Internet days when it was primarily academic along with some early tech companies, true names were definitely the norm.

For BBSs and the like, it varied. For hacker sites and the like anonymity/pseudonymity was certainly common but for more mainstream discussion boards, lots of people used their real names. We even had IRL get togethers.