many years ago i mustered a campaign to reverse four square's real name policy, with the help of a former AOL executive and the former public health comissioner of a large state other than my own.<p>as i go off to start the christmas season with my... lists... i wish we wouldn't reinvent these debates every 5-10 years.<p>one point this author misses is many folks are not american - dissidents in places like russia and china are not young wannabe cryptoanarchists wanting to steal the music they cannot afford at sam goody, they are dissidents, a forever decision that means a life of fearless, adversarial ratfucking of any and all attempts to identify you that are encountered if you want to live to troll another day.<p>nyms are like underwear, meant to be discarded and begun anew when worn out -- and open source should be able to tolerate such a cycle if we want to continue to see projects like how truecrypt became veracrypt and others come to fruition