Github names & avatars

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad via Digitalmars-d]

On Saturday, 14 May 2016 at 08:24:32 UTC, Joakim wrote:
> taken it to now.  It just means, "Stick to the technical 
> topics," particularly in this forum, which is mostly feasible, 
> but people have other interests too and discussions wander to 
> the connected world.

Without a clear moderation policy and a capable moderator it just 
means the «sensibilities and favouritism» of the moderator at 
hand. The D forums show symptoms of this. Being a good moderator 
is difficult though especially if you are emotionally invested in 
the topic. Ideally the moderator shouldn't be invested in the 
topic at hand.

So often the better solution is to have different forum sections 
and divert/direct different groups to the different sections. 
Telling people to move regular communication off to another 
community is counter productive and impractical. It is typically 
the opposite of what you should do to grow a stronger community.

Anyway, talking religion and politics in a work setting is 
perfectly fine in a sane working environment. It is very 
difficult to get to know people without talking beliefs and 
values. Getting to know people is what makes communities healthy 
and strong. Anxiety isn't good for growth, a culture with a 
relaxed and laid back attitude to different opinions is much 
better for growth.

> Using your real name online is an artifact of the real world 
> that doesn't work too well: I read a good analogy once that 
> compared it to shouting out your real name every time you enter 
> a real room, which nobody does.  We're moving to a more 
> anonymous virtual world where most everyone will be using 
> nicknames, we're just not there yet, largely because the 
> culture at large is just not used to it yet.

I don't know. Younger people often go with the anonymous "cool" 
handle, but as people get older they tend to go with their real 
name?

Besides, if you use the same handle you aren't really anonymous 
anyway. It is usually easy to track down people's real identities 
based on the information they share by systematic googling. If 
you really want to. Most people don't really want to, but 
anonymity is usually not easy to achieve if you want meaningful 
communication over time.

However, providing just date+time+identity can become a problem. 
Say, if an employee is on sick leave and is active on github in 
the same period. So even seemingly innocent information can be 
sensitive given the circumstances (depending on the nature of the 
employer-employee relationship).