Epistemic status: Kidding around, but also serious
If you want to create an account without using your name, I recommend choosing a distinctive username that people can easily refer to, rather than some variant on “anonymous_user”.
Among usernames with 50+ karma on the Forum, we have:
AnonymousEAForumAccount
anonymous_ea
anonymousthrowaway
anonymoose
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen at least one comment back-and-forth between two accounts with this kind of name. It’s a bit much :-P
One possibility is to do what Google Docs does, and pick an animal at near-random (ideally a memorable one), and be AnonymousMouse, AnonymousDog, AnonymouseNakedMoleRat, etc.
This feels like the next-worst option to me. I think I’d find it easier to remember whether “fluttershy_forever” or “UtilityMonster” said something than to remember whether “AnonymousDog” or “AnonymousMouse” said it.
I think this makes it clear that people are deliberately being anonymous rather than carrying over old internet habits.
Also I think there’s a possibility of information leakage if someone tries to be too cutesy with their pseudonyms. Eg, fluttershy_forever might lead someone to look for similar names in the My Little Pony forums, say, where the user might be more willing to “out” themselves than if they were writing a critical piece on the EA forum.
This is even more true for narrower interests. My Dominion username is a Kafka+Murakami reference, for example.
There’s also a possibility of doxing in the other direction, where eg, someone may not want their EA Forum opinions to be associated with bad fanfiction they wrote when they were 16.
The deliberate anonymity point is a good one. The ideal would be a distinct anonymous username the person doesn’t use elsewhere, but this particular issue isn’t very important in any case.
Brief note on usernames:
Epistemic status: Kidding around, but also serious
If you want to create an account without using your name, I recommend choosing a distinctive username that people can easily refer to, rather than some variant on “anonymous_user”.
Among usernames with 50+ karma on the Forum, we have:
AnonymousEAForumAccount
anonymous_ea
anonymousthrowaway
anonymoose
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen at least one comment back-and-forth between two accounts with this kind of name. It’s a bit much :-P
One possibility is to do what Google Docs does, and pick an animal at near-random (ideally a memorable one), and be AnonymousMouse, AnonymousDog, AnonymouseNakedMoleRat, etc.
This feels like the next-worst option to me. I think I’d find it easier to remember whether “fluttershy_forever” or “UtilityMonster” said something than to remember whether “AnonymousDog” or “AnonymousMouse” said it.
I think this makes it clear that people are deliberately being anonymous rather than carrying over old internet habits.
Also I think there’s a possibility of information leakage if someone tries to be too cutesy with their pseudonyms. Eg, fluttershy_forever might lead someone to look for similar names in the My Little Pony forums, say, where the user might be more willing to “out” themselves than if they were writing a critical piece on the EA forum.
This is even more true for narrower interests. My Dominion username is a Kafka+Murakami reference, for example.
There’s also a possibility of doxing in the other direction, where eg, someone may not want their EA Forum opinions to be associated with bad fanfiction they wrote when they were 16.
The deliberate anonymity point is a good one. The ideal would be a distinct anonymous username the person doesn’t use elsewhere, but this particular issue isn’t very important in any case.
You could write that the username is deliberately anonymous in your Forum bio.