Quick RE: solderpunk (Mastodon, pseudonymity) ============================================= Foreword: if you haven't followed the two ongoing threads in the phlogosphere about Mastodon/Co.so and about anonymity/pseudonymity I'd suggest you to feel free to skip this phost. If you are not familiar with those threads but would like to catch up on them, I'd suggest you to first check the references at the bottom. --- To the Mastodon/Co.so thread. solderpunk and I had a rather long discussion[0-3] about the above subject which kind of concluded in his (or probably her) latest phost, which was a reply to my post, which was the reply to... you get the idea. These words are just to ensure you, solderpunk, that there's no harm done nor any offense taken and I absolutely appreciate that you in deed went back to your initial phost and removed the word "attack" and changed it to "criticism" -- although, as I said, I would've been totally fine with a pair of quotation marks around. But this is even better. I am glad it turned out that - despite the probable initial mis-representations on both sides - we more or less agree on most of the things about Mastodon and Co.so. I am also greatful that we actually spent the time creating and concluding this thread, since - hopefully - it reveals the caveats of these tools to a broader audience, also it may start a discussion about something that we generally don't really talk about: namely the ethical/moral aspects of software creation and usage. As previously said, I am quite interested in this particular topic and yes, it is on my "to-phlog list" to write about the "possible -- permitted -- ethical", also about some weird (at least weird to some) licensing topics like "not stated but implied". Also, questions like "what is good?", "what is bad?", "what is evil?", "when can violence and such be justified?" are really interesting ones, but also they are strongly subjective to the person speaking -- and sadly they are best to be discussed by a beer, as they'd probably create forever-ongoing threads if we'd try to phlog about them. Anyway. Don't know if I missed something important. Let me know if any of you have further thoughts (objections etc.) about the above. Please ping me if you do. --- To pseudonymity. I'd just quickly reflect to solderpunk's thoughts[4] addressed directly to me. The fact that "I feel that none that I write can/will have a negative impact on my life" doesn't necessarily mean that I expect (or even desire) a positive outcome. Simply put: these thoughts, feelings etc. I express are part of me -- I am not proud of them nor am I ashamed because of them, they are simply the results of me being me, of my personality. And I consider my personality as something I don't want to hide behind a handle or a fake identity. There are no expected outcomes here whatsoever. Any positive outcome is an unexpected gift -- even the strange internet friends. Also, I am happy to inform anyone who reads this that I've already found the love of my life (quite interestingly I've found her online, using a handle, not my real name -- admit it guys, you didn't see that coming), therefore the toddler (who is also the reason why I am super-tired despite the fact that in my timezone it's only 9PM) I already wrote about in my phlog. A sidenote here: I am much more cautious about my kid's online presence that I am on mine. We have an agreement with my partner: we post no pictures, videos etc. of the kid online. We want it to be his decision in the future if he wants to participate in social media madness. I mention him from time to time on my b/phlog (mostly my deep love and admiration towards the little guy), but that's it. One more thing: solderpunk has a hard time imagining any positive outcomes of participating in the internet using my real name. Well, I had plenty. Another interesting fact about me (again, not positive or negative, just a fact): I used to be a librarian. Really. I have a college diploma saying I am a LIS specialist and I was working as one for 7-or-so years. During me being a librarian I was writing a professional blog about library science in general, the challenges that libraries are facing in the information (and post-information) era, the best practices from around the world and so on. And I have plenty of positive feedback. I was awarded as the "young librarian of the year". I gave speeches all around my country in front of librarians and information specialists about the future of libraries, about online services, about user experience and so on. I was invited to be a tutor, to write articles for LIS papers. I was under 30 that time. And it all started with a blog, published under my real name. It was fun (and also a bit awkward, as I really considered myself "just a LIS blogger"). Writing stuff under my real name not only helped me to achive career goals but also to meet fantastic people both home and abroad, to keep on learning and educating myself. I clearly consider this a "positive outcome" -- an unexpected gift. --- [0] gopher://http://psztrnk.ddns.net:70/log/20180103.txt [1] gopher://sdf.org/0/users/solderpunk/phlog/thoughts-on-mastodon-and-decentralisation.txt [2] gopher://http://psztrnk.ddns.net:70/log/20180108.txt [3] gopher://sdf.org/0/users/solderpunk/phlog/response-to-psztrnk-re-mastodon.txt [4] gopher://sdf.org/0/users/solderpunk/phlog/responses-on-pseudonymity.txt