Anonymous Blogging

There was an interesting discussion on NDTV yesterday in the program "We the People" on the topic "Should blogs be moderated ?". This talk show had my mind working on a lot of things and one of the topics was "Anonymous Blogging". Anonymous blogging is blogging without letting your identity known. Now why would one want to blog anonymously ? There are times when I wish I was an anonymous blogger too - the reason being that I have certain thoughts and views which may be a bit controversial or can have an impact if known to others. So what happens when you blog with your real identity is that you start becoming reserved in what you write and say since it can have repercussions.

On the other hand when you blog anonymously you can be totally candid and open about everything in the world since no one knows who you are. It is known the world over that in order to become famous you need to be either controversial, titillating or just absolutely provocative in what you write about. This is an excerpt from Sachin's Java and Software Blog

"More technical titles generally languish somewhere in the middle of the list which at the top is crowded by articles that are inflammatory in their title or simply very vague about their content."

And when you are anonymous it is easier to write such inflammatory articles and thus become more popular.

Blogging anonymously also has its drawbacks. It removes the credibility factor from the content of the blog. If I read a blog that has a name to it I tend to believe it a lot more than a blog that does not have a name to it and the same goes for the comments on my blog. Comments that have names to them are taken a lot more seriously than comments that do not have names.

I am comfortable with blogging with my identity known to everyone as I do not fear about what I write even though there are times I wish to say somethings but can't. I have known a lot of people that are scared to blog because they will be found out - my advise to them is do it anonymously it is so easy to create an online avatar that can make you a superhero.