zlacker

I think anonymity per se is not that bad, and I'm pretty sure many regularly create throwaway accounts for harmless discussion on many forums just for privacy reasons (avoid profiling & analysis, big brother, personal attacks, etc), not for posting inflammatory or controversial comments.

Websites like Reddit Profile (https://redditprofile.com/about) and HN Profile (https://hnprofile.com) systematically scans all HN comments and identifies all users' expertise, personal interests, activities and emotions, and allow employers to uncover their E-mails and hire them. And it's just a one-man's startup as a social experiment, larger agencies and corporations have at least many order-of-magnitude higher budgets. And I definitely think not everyone wants that.

The problem, I think, is this type of behavior encourages inappropriate uses and abuses of anonymity.