Just curious why so few people use their real names.

[LeftishBrit]

117. Because there is always a small minority on any internet group who can be malicious and cause troubl

I was once on another political forum (NOT Discussionist, to forestall misunderstandings); where the host suddenly decided to get paranoid about me and my reasons for being on the board, and tried to ring me at work from 3000 miles away. They 'outed' me on an irrelevant forum to which they also belonged, giving my name and workplace, which they'd managed to find as a result of my using my real name to register though I never used it on the board; and ridiculed me there (these posts were soon deleted by that other forum's hosts). This was disconcerting enough when I was on a different continent from the person; if they were closer to me, I'd have been quite worried.

That was fairly mild. I know of boards that have been very keen on digging up personal 'dirt' on people on other boards, whose politics they oppose, and in some cases trying to get them sacked from their jobs, prevented from getting some form of medical treatment, etc. Even death threats.

This is apart from people who could face severe backlash from relatives or employers just for being openly left-wing.