[...] In the context of the partly anonymous attacks against Cathy Sierra, Seth Godin links to his three year old post on online anonymity, making me think of my own post on bloggers with pseudonyms. [...]

[...] Or, otherwise, would they have Googled for each other later, and then, Commented on each other’s blogs anonymously, comment-flirted with each other? [...]

You know, honesty doesn’t come with a name, it comes with an examined life. You’ll also find that most “anonymous” bloggers are known to their friends. On the rare occasions when I do blog, I prefer to do so anonymously simply because I’m not interested in random third parties knowing who I am- a simple issue of privacy. I’ve also met with many of the people who I’ve got to know online. The internet is a frequently dangerous place. The need to protect your identity may not stem from fears about emotional vulnerability, but more mundance concerns- preventing identity theft, preventing random psychos from getting to know where you live/work.