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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.