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Three Form Identity

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Matt

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Posts: 227
Location: Charlotte, NC

We often find ourselves in a predicament when trying to express our viewpoints on topics especially in this complex industry where we have such a tight-knit community. Saying the wrong thing or expressing your viewpoint publicly can lead to devastating consequences for one's reputation. Forum users often use anonymity for this reason or just to remain anonymous for the heck of it. Given the new field of science we're working in I feel people desire to build more than just a semi-anonymous online reputation.

If the forum provided the ability to create dual-identities; users could post as themselves or as their alter-ego, while still building a real and virtual reputation within a single account. I propose the ability to have three forms of identity with a default control available as a posting option on the forum:

• Username Posting Option 1 - User's Real Name (Public Reputation)
• Username Posting Option 2 - User's Handle (Semi-Anonymous Reputation)
• Username Posting Option 3 - "Anonymous" (Completely Private Reputation)

Since the access to each username is controlled through a centralized network trolling can be moderated easily. This option could also be sold for LTBc in support of the network.

Thoughts?

Posted on July 13, 2014 at 2:38 PM

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• Mike

  

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  Posts: 203
  Location: Chicago, IL

  Very interesting idea. In some other circles, I do avoid contributing to certain conversations that would open an individual up to extra unnecessary scrutiny. I would certainly make a donation to the forum in return for this ability.

  The logistics of this, however, I am unsure of. it seems like you would have to go pretty deep into the core of the forum in order to build something like this out.

  Posted on July 13, 2014 at 3:36 PM
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• therealtwig

  

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  Posts: 97
  Location: Bloomington, IN

  Very interesting idea. @Matt do you believe that people would have a higher incentive to participate more if they weren't directly tied to their online persona? I believe part of what gives someone credibility as well in this space is taking chances with opinions and learning from conflict if it arises. Granted, I do not have a handle that is tied to my real name (and who knows that might change eventually), but I wouldn't necessarily feel the need to post on an anonymous account even if I had access to one.

  Posted on July 13, 2014 at 4:33 PM
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• dirtyboots702

  

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  Posts: 49
  Location: SLC

  I agree this is an interesting idea. People probably have a higher incentive to participate not being associated online persona because it gives no one accountability and can cause more conflict conflict I too do not have a handle that is tied to my real name for my own reasons but think in the grand scheme we all need to have a real ID

  Posted on July 13, 2014 at 4:45 PM
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• Cryptonaut

  

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  Posts: 1944
  Location: Canada

  I like this idea actually. I don't think it would be terribly difficult to implement either. Im not sure about dual identities, but definitely options to post with real name, username or as anon.

  thoughts @adam?

  Posted on July 13, 2014 at 4:49 PM
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• Matt

  

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  Posts: 227
  Location: Charlotte, NC

  @therealtwig Very interesting idea. @Matt do you believe that people would have a higher incentive to participate more if they weren't directly tied to their online persona? I believe part of what gives someone credibility as well in this space is taking chances with opinions and learning from conflict if it arises. Granted, I do not have a handle that is tied to my real name (and who knows that might change eventually), but I wouldn't necessarily feel the need to post on an anonymous account even if I had access to one.

  I would agree with you, however I feel users would appreciate this type of anonymity since it offers them all the ways to express themselves freely without the repurcussions of affecting their reputation. Adam mentioned on his podcast recently writing white papers about the LTBcoin idea (prior to it's creation), but never actually publishing them since he was unsure of their validity. If he had a private alias or anonymous identity with a respectable reputation he could have published his ideas a bit more freely without fear of affecting his reputation of his ideas. I often find myself in a similar situation when trying to share ideas or thoughts in this space since I'm not as versed in the technical aspects of cryptography and computer science. I understand the concepts, but the engineering is often over my head.

  Posted on July 13, 2014 at 5:02 PM
  Last Edited: July 13, 2014 at 5:59 PM
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• Matt

  

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  Location: Charlotte, NC

  @cryptonaut I like this idea actually. I don't think it would be terribly difficult to implement either. Im not sure about dual identities, but definitely options to post with real name, username or as anon.

  thoughts @adam?

  @cryptonaut

  I think this sort of thing will help set the forum apart from others. It'd be great to really get to know the community and everyone's real name, but also allowing them the freedom of posting in a sort of anonymous fashion when they choose, while still building their reputation. Not to mention it gives the LTB platform an additional monetization pipeline.

  Posted on July 14, 2014 at 11:11 AM
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• adam

  

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  Posts: 1980
  Location: California, USA

  I like this idea, but I think boards should have the ability to restrict it if it's becoming a problem to the conversation.

  Posted on July 14, 2014 at 11:29 AM
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• William

  

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  Posts: 308

  @adam I like this idea, but I think boards should have the ability to restrict it if it's becoming a problem to the conversation.

  It could become a problem if it leads to flame wars, spam and trolling. At the same time, offending comments or posters could still be filtered out through the moderation process or the crowd-sourced curation methods under discussion/development. I think @Matt's idea is very interesting. +1

  Posted on July 14, 2014 at 11:38 AM
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• Matt

  

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  Posts: 227
  Location: Charlotte, NC

  @william

  @adam I like this idea, but I think boards should have the ability to restrict it if it's becoming a problem to the conversation.

  It could become a problem if it leads to flame wars, spam and trolling. At the same time, offending comments or posters could still be filtered out through the moderation process or the crowd-sourced curation methods under discussion/development. I think @Matt's idea is very interesting. +1

  @adam agreed

  Each name/username would be tied to the same account though, so it would be easy for moderators to penalize/block trolls. Users trolling would affect their real names rep, so I don't think it would be as big of a problem. The LTB platform would need a way to track a users reputation via points system.

  Posted on July 14, 2014 at 12:09 PM
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• CrimsonRoze

  

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  Posts: 295
  Location: Göteborg, Sweden

  This is probably the most genius strike of simplicity that gives value to users that I've seen in a long time.

  Let me explain:

  I regulary post comments on the coindesk.com articles and I am well aware that some of my comments are well thought out while others are more like requests for comments - on my comment.

  Whenever I get unsure about whether what I am about to say could either reflect on me badly or I'm unsure if it goes with my moral beliefs or not I tend to use random aliases for the comments instead of my real name.

  This use case is something that I've maintained for a couple of months now and it's really opened me up to expressing questions and doubts about myself and my moral believes that I would not have allowed myself to openly discuss otherwise.

  Today I posted my first article for the LTB network and as a result I decided that I need to change from being a lurker who scours this forum for evening leisure to a more proper profile and went ahead and changed my real name entry, my avatar from one of my cats to an image of myself and double-checked that my account now reflects me as the person I want to be when posting serious content on the LTB network.

  This however means I've locked myself up as a publisher and should I gain a reputation I would then need to defend it and my ability to take standpoints which might be against my moral values for the sake of exploring the basic underlying arguments is now severely weakened.

  Implementing multiple options for how I post (with different avatars!) might just be enough to allow me to test and see who "me" really is in the future, without having to put all of my identities at stake.

  Posted on July 14, 2014 at 12:23 PM
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