Shit posting is one of the biggest forms of toxicity online. It would be nice if it went away by tying posts to real people. Some people don't care and would shitpost anyway, but most people only shitpost because nobody knows who they really are.
But if shitposting is just off-color jokes or talking about topics you might want to keep private, I don't see that as a problem. I think a lot of great internet content wouldn't exist without some form of anonymity. I certainly wouldn't share genuine insights into my job without anonymity. People wouldn't share sexual content or secrets. Many people wouldn't share anything at all no matter how tame or appropriate. My wife over thinks when she writes and is always afraid she isn't wording things well. She posts absolutely nothing outside of Reddit.
Edit: I should note that shit posting on Reddit has a long and glorious tradition. It’s expected and highly upvoted.
Keep Reddit and Twitter for that, this-new-thing for real-identity real talk.
I don't see a problem and I'd love it.
Writing anonymously or with pseudonyms is as old as feather pens. It allowed people to denounce tyrants and allowed women to publish their writings.
To force everyone to show an id to publish is either very naive or ill-intented to push us into a full Orwellian framework.
'Shitposting' or scorn writing is the price to pay so that anonymity is there for when you _truly_ need it.
If this was true and the only explanation, HN should be much worse than it is and Facebook should be much better than it is.
Even as a person who hardly ever get in trouble with mods I have come to deeply appreciate the possibility to have accounts or profiles totally disconnected from reality.
Many stories we see couldn't have been shared if a hard link to a real identity was necessary, and many questions could not ve asked.
For example random22username12 asking about some technical aspect about some software is not a problem.
But if he is Firstname Lastname from Some Company it might get him in trouble, as it might tell others what they are working on.
If you post about not like drag shows in front of children, that itself is harmless enough in a vacuum but polarizes people to a serious extent
All real name policies do is make many LGBTQ+ people feel unwelcome.
Like Google deliberately fucking up their image search and not releasing a proper face search... because rainbow ponies would fall from the sky.