Blogging Anonymously
At the ABCD WWW Working Group talk yesterday, someone asked about whether people blog anonymously. Rebecca MacKinnon talked about how using a name and letting people know your identity is important for establishing credibility. Anonymous bloggers can establish credibility–people mentioned a few well-known anonymous or formerly anonymous bloggers. In some ways, aren’t most new bloggers blogging anonymously, even if they use their real name and identity, until they establish a regular group of readers, especially depending on the topic of their blog? How many bloggers have an instant audience of people who know them in real life?
In my case, I would say I know a lot of people, but I certainly don’t expect most of the people who know me personally, like my friends or family members, to read this blog because most of them aren’t that interested in my career. (I think I just lost a few blog readers.) When I began blogging, I didn’t have an instant audience of friends and family. Most of this blog’s readers probably didn’t know me personally. I had no idea who would be intersted in reading what I write or what they would want to know about me. When some of this blog’s readers began visiting regularly, I’m sure to most of them I was no more than just another name. Some of them probably did some searches to try to learn more about me. Maybe someone recognized my name from a Web site, discussion list, or bylined article. Perhaps someone remembered meeting me at a professional development activity.
But what about those bloggers who don’t have a strong online presence outside of their weblog? How do readers learn about them? How much does credibility matter in the blogosphere, especially for people reading blogs as a hobby? How does meeting a blogger or knowing a blogger personally change how a reader perceives the blog?
Anonymity has different levels, too. sj, for example, uses his first two initials on his blog. Many people know him in real life under some variation of his given name. Some people don’t connect him with this blog because they don’t know his initials, know he has a blog, or know that he uses sj in a number of other circles instead of his real name. Someone who knows him by his initials elsewhere may easily figure out that this is his blog. From what I know about him, he’s not shy about admitting this blog is his. He just doesn’t state that clearly on it. That’s a little different from someone who blogs in complete secrecy.
If someone is trying to blog anonymously, it’s a good idea to let other bloggers know. Not all are respectful of people’s hidden identities when they know the person in real life.
