The interactive environment of bianca's is an evolving embodiment of its members' suggestions . Contributing tools to the commonwealth is one of the most lively ways that members demonstrate their commitment. If hosts do this, the welcoming attitude will be picked up by the community at large. Topics in which members introduce themselves to the group help lurkers join the flow. On America Online, members are allowed to use as many fictitious screen names as they please, which means the chat rooms are filled with such colorful, disposable figments of the imagination as Cherry4U and kcobain.
Anonymity opens the door to a theater of identity, in which gender, history, and voice are fluid.
Anonymity can be life-saving if you are posting to Usenet from a country where criticism of the government is a capital crime , or if you are a gay kid in a fundamentalist household taking your first steps online to being genuine in public life. The difference, says Wasow, is accountability. You want people to feel a sense of specific identity, so they don't walk away from it if something bad happens. Anonymity keeps you from developing that continuity. Filter rather than censor Turmoil, dissent, and civil disagreement express the life force of a community.