I avoided this problem by using a hard-to-Google pseudonym, figuring that I could always make a new account or just stop posting if I majorly screwed up. I don’t know if pseudonymity alone would reassure other lurkers, though; framing it as fictional roleplaying might be more useful for people who aren’t me.
ETA: perhaps adding a reminder to the FAQ that pseudonymity is acceptable would help? And linking the FAQ more prominently.
Personally, pseudonymity wasn’t that helpful, its not that I didn’t want to risk my good name or something, as much as that I just didn’t want to be publicly wrong among intelligent people. Even if people didn’t know that the comment was from me per se, they were still (hypothetically) disagreeing with my ideas and I would still know that the post was mine. For me it was more hyperbolic discounting than it was rational cost-benefit analysis.
I avoided this problem by using a hard-to-Google pseudonym, figuring that I could always make a new account or just stop posting if I majorly screwed up. I don’t know if pseudonymity alone would reassure other lurkers, though; framing it as fictional roleplaying might be more useful for people who aren’t me.
ETA: perhaps adding a reminder to the FAQ that pseudonymity is acceptable would help? And linking the FAQ more prominently.
Personally, pseudonymity wasn’t that helpful, its not that I didn’t want to risk my good name or something, as much as that I just didn’t want to be publicly wrong among intelligent people. Even if people didn’t know that the comment was from me per se, they were still (hypothetically) disagreeing with my ideas and I would still know that the post was mine. For me it was more hyperbolic discounting than it was rational cost-benefit analysis.