Editing Pseudonym (section)

====Online reputations====
Pseudonymity is an important component of the reputation systems found in online auction services (such as [[eBay]]), discussion sites (such as [[Slashdot]]), and collaborative knowledge development sites (such as [[Wikipedia]]). A pseudonymous user who has acquired a favorable reputation gains the trust of other users. When users believe that they will be rewarded by acquiring a favorable reputation, they are more likely to behave in accordance with the site's policies.<ref>[[Peter Kollock|Kollock, P]]. (1999). [http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/online_trust.htm "The Production of Trust in Online Markets."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226160128/http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/online_trust.htm |date=26 February 2009 }} In E.J. Lawler, M. Macy, S. Thyne, and H.A. Walker (eds.), ''Advances in Group Processes'' (Greenwich, CT: JAI Press).</ref>

If users can obtain new pseudonymous identities freely or at a very low cost, reputation-based systems are vulnerable to whitewashing attacks,<ref>Feldman, M., S. Papadimitriou, and J. Chuang (2004). "Free-Riding and Whitewashing in Peer-to-Peer Systems." Paper presented at SIGCOMM '04 Workshop (Portland, Oregon, 30 Aug. – 3 September 2004).</ref> also called ''serial pseudonymity'', in which abusive users continuously discard their old identities and acquire new ones in order to escape the consequences of their behavior: "On the Internet, nobody knows that yesterday you were a dog, and therefore should be in the doghouse today."<ref name="friedman-resnick">{{cite journal | doi = 10.1162/105864001300122476 | last1 = Friedman | first1 = E. | last2 = Resnick | first2 = P. | year = 2001 | title = The Social Cost of Cheap Pseudonyms | url = http://www.si.umich.edu/~presnick/papers/identifiers/081199.pdf | journal = Journal of Economics and Management Strategy | volume = 10 | issue = 2 | pages = 173–199 | hdl = 2027.42/71559  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081123102704/http://www.si.umich.edu/~presnick/papers/identifiers/081199.pdf | archive-date = 23 November 2008 | citeseerx = 10.1.1.30.6376 }}</ref> Users of Internet communities who have been banned only to return with new identities are called [[Internet sock puppet|sock puppets]]. Whitewashing is one specific form of a [[Sybil attack]] on distributed systems.  
[[File:Disqus_comment_quality_by_anonymity.svg|thumb|Comment quality on [[Disqus]] by type<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=Rosen|first=Rebecca J.|date=11 January 2012|title=Real Names Don't Make for Better Commenters, but Pseudonyms Do|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/01/real-names-dont-make-for-better-commenters-but-pseudonyms-do/251240/|access-date=1 July 2020|website=[[The Atlantic]]|language=en-US}}</ref>]]

The social cost of cheaply discarded pseudonyms is that experienced users lose confidence in new users,<ref>{{cite journal | doi = 10.1145/276758.276774 | last1 = Johnson | first1 = D.G. | last2 = Miller | first2 = K. | year = 1998 | title = Anonymity, Pseudonymity, and Inescapable Identity on the Net | journal = ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society | volume = 28 | issue = 2| pages = 37–38 }}</ref> and may subject new users to abuse until they establish a good reputation.<ref name="friedman-resnick" /> System operators may need to remind experienced users that most newcomers are well-intentioned (see, for example, {{srlink|Wikipedia:Please do not bite the newcomers|Wikipedia's policy about biting newcomers}}). Concerns have also been expressed about sock puppets exhausting the supply of easily remembered usernames. In addition a recent research paper demonstrated that people behave in a potentially more aggressive manner when using pseudonyms/nicknames (due to the [[online disinhibition effect]]) as opposed to being completely anonymous.<ref name="tsikerdekis">{{Cite conference  | first = Michail  | last = Tsikerdekis  | title = Engineering anonymity to reduce aggression online  | book-title = Proceedings of the IADIS International Conference – Interfaces and Human Computer Interaction  | place = Rome, Italy  | pages = 500–504  | publisher = IADIS – International association for development of the information society  | year = 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | author = Tsikerdekis Michail | title = The choice of complete anonymity versus pseudonymity for aggression online. | journal = EMinds International Journal on Human-Computer Interaction | year = 2012 | pages = 35–57 | volume = 2 | issue = 8}}</ref> In contrast, research by the blog comment hosting service [[Disqus]] found pseudonymous users contributed the "highest quantity and quality of comments", where "quality" is based on an aggregate of likes, replies, flags, spam reports, and comment deletions,<ref name=":0">{{cite web|last1=Disqus|title=Pseudonyms drive communities|url=https://disqus.com/research/pseudonyms/|access-date=15 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160516101013/https://disqus.com/research/pseudonyms/|archive-date=16 May 2016}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> and found that users trusted pseudonyms and real names equally.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Roy|first=Steve|date=15 December 2014|title=What's In A Name? Understanding Pseudonyms|url=https://blog.disqus.com/whats-in-a-name-understanding-pseudonyms|access-date=11 July 2020|website=The Disqus Blog|language=en-us}}</ref> 
[[File:HuffPo_comments_reason_words_insults.svg|thumb|Comment types used on [[HuffPost]] using different kinds of anonymity<ref name=":2" />]]
Researchers at the University of Cambridge showed that pseudonymous comments tended to be more substantive and engaged with other users in explanations, justifications, and chains of argument, and less likely to use insults, than either fully anonymous or real name comments.<ref name=":2">{{citation |last1=Fredheim|first1=Rolf|last2=Moore|first2=Alfred|title=Talking Politics Online: How Facebook Generates Clicks But Undermines Discussion|date=4 November 2015|doi=10.2139/ssrn.2686164 |ssrn=2686164}}</ref> Proposals have been made to raise the costs of obtaining new identities, such as by charging a small fee or requiring e-mail confirmation. Academic research has proposed cryptographic methods to pseudonymize social media identities<ref>{{cite conference|first1=John |last1=Maheswaran|first2=Daniel |last2=Jackowitz|first3=Ennan |last3=Zhai|first4=David Isaac |last4=Wolinsky|first5=Bryan |last5=Ford|title=Building Privacy-Preserving Cryptographic Credentials from Federated Online Identities|conference=6th ACM Conference on Data and Application Security and Privacy (CODASPY)|conference-url=https://sites.google.com/site/codaspy20162/|url=https://dedis.cs.yale.edu/dissent/papers/cryptobook.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://dedis.cs.yale.edu/dissent/papers/cryptobook.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|date=9 March 2016}}</ref> or government-issued identities,<ref>{{cite web|title=CanDID: Can-Do Decentralized Identity with Legacy Compatibility, Sybil-Resistance, and Accountability|author=Deepak Maram |author2=Harjasleen Malvai |author3=Fan Zhang |author4=Nerla Jean-Louis |author5=Alexander Frolov |author6=Tyler Kell |author7=Tyrone Lobban |author8=Christine Moy |author9=Ari Juels |author10=Andrew Miller |url=https://eprint.iacr.org/2020/934.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://eprint.iacr.org/2020/934.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|date=28 Sep 2020}}</ref> to accrue and use ''anonymous reputation'' in online forums,<ref>{{cite conference|title=AnonRep: Towards Tracking-Resistant Anonymous Reputation|author=Ennan Zhai |author2=David Isaac Wolinsky |author3=Ruichuan Chen |author4=Ewa Syta |author5=Chao Teng |author6=Bryan Ford |conference=13th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI '16)|conference-url=https://www.usenix.org/conference/nsdi16|date=18 March 2016|url=https://www.usenix.org/conference/nsdi16/technical-sessions/presentation/zhai}}</ref> or to obtain one-per-person and hence less readily-discardable pseudonyms periodically at physical-world ''pseudonym parties''.<ref>{{cite conference |doi=10.1145/1435497.1435503 |chapter=An Offline Foundation for Online Accountable Pseudonyms |conference=1st Workshop on Social Network Systems – SocialNets '08 |pages=31–6 |date=1 April 2008 |last1=Ford |first1=Bryan |last2=Strauss |first2=Jacob |title=Proceedings of the 1st workshop on Social network systems - Social ''Nets'' '08 |isbn=978-1-60558-124-8 |conference-url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/1435497|chapter-url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1435497.1435503|citeseerx=10.1.1.156.4099 }}</ref>  Others point out that Wikipedia's success is attributable in large measure to its nearly non-existent initial participation costs.