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Back in the hoary old dinosaur days of the World Wide Web, anonymity stalked the earth. Finally, you could say what you really wanted to say.
And people did.
Boy howdy did they.
This was back in the days before WordPress, before blogging. When usenet was the only real game in town. Most people with web sites worked for Big Government, Big Corporation, but mostly, Big Education. And it was uncommon even in Big Education. I was there; this is how it was.
Anonymity was propagated because there was little infrastructure supporting people who wanted websites, but didn’t know how to code HTML.
Now, it’s all different. It’s easy to have a website. Just sign up for any of a zillion free blogging accounts and pound away. Drop the URL in your email signature, you’re on the web. And you’re no longer anonymous.
But some folks still hide behind anonymity. Still flame and rant away.
Guess what: nowadays, if you’re anonymous, you have very little credibility.
If you won’t put a name on your rant somewhere, you have no credibility at all.
This is why I comment elsewhere under my real name (Dave Doolin) instead of Dr. “WordPress.” It’s all about credibility.
I use Dr. WordPress here as a “Business Avatar.” If I ever want to sell Website In A Weekend, Dr. WordPress goes right along with the website. It’s part of the package. This is far from anonymity.
If you’re still on the fence about this, make a decision. Effectively participating online requires building credibility. You can build credibility anonymously, but it’s far more difficult. And you absolutely cannot build any credibility without having some sort of website, anonymous or not.
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Great way to put it Dave, if your identity online is based on a specific product that your looking to push you have zero identity at all.
I hate when people leave comments like with names like “Anonymous” or “Dog Bone Reviews”. dumb.
Extreme John´s last blog ..27 Things Your Position Requires
Dog Bone Reviews… I like it!
If you ever see “Dog Bone Reviews” you’ll know who it is.
Dr Wordpress!´s last blog ..Whose in Charge Here? You, or your blog?
…but if you sell this website, you sell your credibility with it. That’s why I don’t understand your motives. Help me understand?
Ari Herzog´s last blog ..Foursquare, Plancast, and Tungle: 3 Applications to Share Your Activities
Yes, there is a risk. If I sold it (and I have no plans to do that), some long tail comments would resolve here.
Disqus, Intense Debate and Echo comments would not. I would simply change my URL associated with those accounts and we’re off to the races on a new web site.
I have noticed that even with CommentLuv, I still get most of my hits on the front page.
But any articles linked from say CommentLuv would still be good articles, provided the new owner didn’t delete them (which would make no sense at all).
Business “avatars” or “personas” have a long and very successful history in marketing. Think Sara Lee, whose appearance is updated every generation to reflect the mores and fashion of the times.
Using a business avatar here allows me to establish a different focus when posting under my own name elsewhere.
We’re facing up to a shakeout. I wrote about it a couple of months ago: free as we know it can’t continue indefinitely. Bills have to be paid. Sure, there will always be hobbyist, academic, government and big corporate bloggers, but that’s an increasingly small percentage. Many of these same folks, who are otherwise very reasonable, seem to be wildly and irrationally opposed to web-based commerce. And I don’t get that at all.
Point: when someone reads my web pages, it’s costing me a small amount of real money. I have to pay for hosting.
In turn, the hosting company has to pay for electricity, hardware, salaries, benefits and other overhead.
In the bigger picture, “free” webpages are not free. The cost is carried by someone.
This isn’t a hobby for me. It’s a marketing _expense_. I’d very much like to do quite a bit more surfing, but again, bills have to be paid.
This means when the passion subsides, I still have produce high quality content on a regular basis. Hobbyists can simply quit. And make no mistake, the passion ebbs and flows.
I hope this helps you understand more about the business aspect, feel free to ask as many questions as you like. I’ve been toying with writing a longish post on the matter.
Dr Wordpress!´s last blog ..Where Good Design Begins: Getting to know your customer
I don’t see how selling a site makes you lose your credibility? If you’re name is tied to your site, when you sell it, people will still recognize you and respect you for what you built. Mark Cuban sold broadcast.com, but he’s still well known and reputable as a businessman.
The only serious danger I see is if the people who takeover make a mess of your site and people don’t know you’ve moved on.
Blake @ Props Blog Rewiews´s last blog ..Everything You Thought You Knew About SEO Is Wrong
I would never be able to sell my blog unless I sold it to family or someone with the same last name (I guess). But my business website carries a business name and could be sold easily, in fact that is my intent once I build a suitable amount of clientele.
Those that comment anonymously more often then not get deleted and their opinion is never seen by my readers. I simply don’t care for flame throwing pranksters.
Ms. Freeman´s last blog ..Ode to Akismet
I won’t ever sell daviddoolin.com or http://dool.in even though I’m not using either at the moment.
Dr Wordpress!´s last blog ..Made to Stick: Earworms for your brain
I hear what you’re saying, Dave D. In my very early days of blogging, I rarely used my last name – just my first. Now, I don’t make any effort to hide it. I’m writing a couple of books and have been pursing, more and more seriously, a career in writing, hence, I need to use my name as my platform.
I’ve pondered, recently, changing my Twitter name, too, from @Janebenimble to @LoriFranklin for that same reason. To me, the blog is JaneBeNimble, but my brand is Lori Franklin.
I plan to slowly migrate my blog to more of a website (with a blog as a component) once I start pitching my books and writing proposals/searching for agents.
Thanks for what you said here – you’re spot on!
Lori´s last blog ..Random Acts of Kick Arse: Wacky
Lori, Jane Be Nimble is an *awesome* brand… for something.
Not sure exactly what, but it’s potentially very sticky. I hope you hold on to it. You may find yourself posting as “Jane” at some point.
Dr Wordpress!´s last blog ..Made to Stick: Earworms for your brain
Interesting you say that, about posting as “Jane.”
It has actually caused some confusion when folks come to my blog – many people mistakenly call me Jane. Not that it bothers me, but it has definitely confused people.
I had actually been tossing around calling myself Jane so people don’t feel bad when they refer to me by the “wrong” name.
Oh, and thanks for liking “JaneBeNimble” – I like it a lot, too.
Lori´s last blog ..Random Acts of Kick Arse: Wacky
I’m going to start calling you Lori-Jane… it sounds so Southern Belle, don’t you think?
As for the topic at hand, I’m totally and hopelessly transparent on the Net, for better or worse. It’s too late to back-track now.
I’m off to visit my sweet friend, Lori-Jane, bless her heart. (I like it! Especially since she’s not very Southern Belle-ish at all!)
Lori-Jane. Sounds very Laura Ashley.
But it wouldn’t be hyphenated. Just Lori Jane.
The whole idea of Avatars is an interesting one. I for one like them, though I don’t really hide who I really am in any way.
Deacon´s last blog ..Where’s Waldo Proves I Have Tech Cred
It’s even more interesting as this Avatar movie has kicked major butt over the last 3 weeks.
Could be really cool. I like having an avatar. Everything about Dr WordPress is congruent with my personality, but I get more freedom to focus on just that aspect.
Dr Wordpress!´s last blog ..Forget Resolutions 2010: Less Talk More Action (& Week in Review!)
A bit over 20 years ago, we also had BBS. I remember laying a fan on top of my PC’s power pack since they weren’t designed to be on 24/7.
Gabe | freebloghelp.com´s last blog ..Wildfire Marketing Group did the right thing; now it’s my turn
Ah… the bad old days.
I swear this is true: at one point I had toted home a VT102 with modem to teach myself Java programming from the command line.
Dr Wordpress!´s last blog ..Google AdSense: text vs. image ads, which is best?
“The bad old days”… love the term. But then again, those were great HS memories, too!
Gabe | freebloghelp.com´s last blog ..Get the most out of your time with The Value-Driven Commenting System
Memories? Memories?
What are these “memories” you speak of.
I can’t recall a thing.
Heh.
Dr Wordpress!´s last blog ..Google AdSense: text vs. image ads, which is best?
To this day I don’t feel comfortable sharing everything about myself such as the arson attacks, vandalism and Hedonistic orgies, but besides those I’ll share anything else. Lol!
Seriously though, I think it’s really hard to build credibility when remaining anonymous. People find it hard enough to trust in the real world, let alone online.
Gordie´s last blog ..How To Turn Cooking Into Lifestyle Design Cuisine.
Gordie, I recently wrote in a comment somewhere that oversharing wasn’t the same as building intimacy. Just because it felt good to write it doesn’t mean it was good!
The fallout will be interesting. I’m watching one woman burn up in it right now. She dissipated her entire emotional energy over the holidays… and doesn’t have any left for inspiration.
Fortunately, I’m too much of a dunderhead for that. When I need to write a blog post and don’t feel inspired, I write dense, highly technical articles on programming that suck in search engines. These articles don’t need to be inspired, they just need to be correct.
Dr Wordpress!´s last blog ..Your Next Killer Technique for Telling Compelling Stories (It’s easier than you think)
Yeah — it is really hard to build credibility while anonymous. Credibility come when others know about you.
Dana @ Blogging Update´s last blog ..Adding Social Networking Links to Blog
I have a tendency to keep many of my opinions to myself. Guess I, scratch that, there is no guessing. I always think of the old saying, ‘Opinions are like assholes. Everybody’s got one’. Feel free to edit that if you want. But my opinion is just that and unless I do something with it besides just talk it really means little.
As for sharing personal stuff, I think some share way too much. I share quite a bit, yet I don’t share that much. I don’t rant on and on about how unfair I think many things are or how most people have disappointed me yet I still have this compulsion to trust everyone [to some degree]. That I reserve for family and they just ‘love’ me for it. I think. Truth is I laugh every day. Life is pretty good even if I’m not happy with many things. And now I’ve shared too much.
Anne´s last blog ..Get Healthy ~ Get Naked
Anne – Totally with you on this. My take on it is that some people can “overshare,” and other people probably ought to put a sock in it. I have an example of each in mind, but as you say about opinions, I prefer to keep such to myself.
Personally, I think it’s a fallacy that we’re supposed to be happy all the time. If that were true, we would not be unhappy. Unhappiness evolved for a reason!
Dr Wordpress!´s last blog ..Website In A Weekend: Thursday evening – Get into the gate
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