Facebook Use Refutes the "Real Name Accounts = More Civil Behavior" Argument (Comment of the Week)

Pictured: Real life couple arguing over the Facebook account of their unborn child

After women and LBGT community members protested, Linden Lab quietly walked back an earlier proposal to give Sansar a real names-only policy, and reader Rebecca makes a trenchant point:

In an era when we have Facebook, right there, as an example of how real name policies don't do anything to make people "play nice", I find even the basic premise baffling.

That they somehow missed all of the previous blow ups, that their staff was sufficiently cloistered to think that everyone feels safe having names out in public, those I find less surprising. They might be in San Francisco, but I would expect given their size and age that they've largely shifted to median Silicon Valley culture.

I think it's fair to say Silicon Valley culture hasn't quite decided the best way to manage social media accounts, because as problematic as Facebook's real name-only policy is, it's just as painfully obvious that Twitter's pseudonyms-allowed policy has just as many drawbacks, if not more so.  The real underlying problem is this:

The only way to keep abuse and trolling down to a dull roar is investing heavily in community management, but very few companies are willing to do that. (Especially as we've mostly moved away from subscription-based models.) So while it's somewhat surprising Linden Lab management would ever consider real names as a panacea to prevent uncivil behavior, it's inevitable that they'd want an easy (and above all, affordable) architected solution.

Comments

[Susan]

You really are determined to make some drama out of this, aren't you? It was an idea that was floated and dropped for good reason. It never happened. Sansar has never required people to use their real names.

[Amanda]

Linden Lab should be applauded for making a good decision by listening to their users.

[Dartagan Shepherd]

Machine learning is making strides in moderation. Still a ways to go, but it's most likely going to be the standard in the future.

I'll miss human moderation, though.