As part of a planned blog overhaul, I decided to abandon my previous nom de plume, 花崗齋之愚公, which nobody ever used anyway, and now plan on using my actual name for the site. Who I am was already kind of an open secret among the Beijing blogging and academic community, and certainly anybody with a couple of minutes to spare and access to google could have figured it out before anyway. So…
I went back and forth on this a few times. Academics, kind of like potential Superme Court justices, tend to be freakishly anal over what kinds of published writings are available, lest some comment, remark, or argument thought to be long buried in the past resurfaces to deprive them of a potential gig.
I’m not sure I’m 100% happy with all of my postings, but they are what they are.
I also think one of the downsides of the internet is its anonymity. Too many bloggers, and especially commenters on blogs, hide behind pseudonyms, and I think this lowers the level of discourse. It’s too easy to take potshots when you don’t sign your name. If you want proof, check out the knee-jerk nationalist wingnuts who infest the comments section of the Time China Blog.
All that said, let me go on the record and state clearly that the views expressed here, past, present, and future, are entirely my own and in absolutely no way reflect the opinions, views, or positions of any institution or organization with which I am now, have been, or will be affiliated. I’m also going to continue my unofficial policy of not mentioning those institutions directly in my posts, though I’m sure it wouldn’t take somebody very long to figure them out.
As Jerry Garcia once said, “If it’s worth playing, it’s worth playing loud.” Along those lines, if it’s worth being written, it deserves to come with a name attached.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Adam Minter // Jan 15, 2008 at 1:07 am
Love the reference to the great “Kiss Unmasked” show on MTV circa … well, I wouldn’t want to date myself.
Anyway, hats off to you for the unmasking. I hesitated to start a blog partly because of this very issue. That is - does a blog post under my name have the same “status” as something edited and published in a magazine? I still don’t have an answer for that, but I’m glad that I chose to blog under my own name. It keeps me honest and - usually - careful. Anonymity is the scourge of reasonable discourse.
For me, the next question is whether to continue allowing anonymous comments on my blog. I don’t generate too many, but they’re usually inane and/or insulting. Something to ponder, I suppose.
2 Jeremiah Jenne // Jan 15, 2008 at 1:16 am
Adam,
No need to put a date, but let’s just say that I was watching, too.
I’ve thought a lot about the same thing. In fact, an earlier draft of this post actually said I would stop posting unsigned comments.
It’s rare to have a truly “anonymous” (As opposed to “Wu Ming”) poster who adds anything to the debate, it’s mostly trolls playing ‘ring and run.’
But that said, I think when I start placing rules on who can and cannot post, it might be the start of a slippery slope and there may well be good reasons why someone wishes to remain anonymous, it’s not necessarily for me to judge.
We’ll see how it goes.
Thanks for stopping by. I really enjoy your blog.
3 bokane // Jan 18, 2008 at 9:39 pm
I saw you were wondering about this on Facebook, and meant to write a reply. I think you made the right decision: I’ve been blogging under my own name for about 8 years now, and ultimately I don’t think it’s made much difference. I don’t feel any less free to speak, but I do have an incentive to reconsder what I’m about to say — which leads to better writing and better thinking in the long run, I think. Besides — without a fair amount of effort and planning, online anonymity is mostly illusory anyway.
4 Jeremiah Jenne // Jan 18, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Brendan,
I agree with all the points that you made. I think that when I first started doing this, I was reading the 88s and TPD, both of whom use pseudonyms of varying effectiveness.
I’m glad I made the switch.
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