On Friday, 13 May 2016 at 17:02:20 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
I'll ask again that the active Github users use their own name,
and add to that if you could have a selfie as your github image.
It avoids when people who post as "Fred" on the newsgroup
submit PRs as "HorseWrangler" and get annoyed when I don't
realize they are the same person, and then I overlook them at
the conference because I have no idea what they look like.
In today's surveillance state, the government already knows
your name and what you look like, so being anonymous on github
is a bit pointless, as if anyone cares that you are interested
in D. I can understand if you're a celebrity or want nobody to
know you're a dog, but that doesn't apply to most of us.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_you%27re_a_dog
If people are annoyed or offended because you don't recognize
them in person or under some other name/alias, they need to get
over themselves. That's just childish.
As for asking us to use our true identities online, there's very
good reason NOT to do so. It's not just about hiding from our
"big brother" the government/NSA/GCHQ. There are companies which
specialize in doing background checks on potential hires and
they'll dig up every little secret they can find about you
online. While you may think an association with D isn't a big
deal, some people out there can be extremely bigoted and will
judge you based on that alone. It goes both ways as well; if one
deplorable individual happens to get a lot of public attention
and he becomes associated with the D community (oh how the media
loves to spin a story), it will reflect poorly on our community
as a whole.
So no, let's not start using our real names just because you fail
to recognize some people.
