61% of Disqus Comments Are Done Through Pseudonyms; Only 4% Use Real Identity

Social Media January 10, 2012 8 Comments

How much value do you place on comments? While it gives a platform for discussions to develop between like minded individuals, the waters can be muddled by those who wish to offer their opinions through a false persona, by being anonymous or by adapting an online persona. Creating one gives users the license to express themselves in a way without repercussions, although that does pave the way for trolls to populate these discussions.

Whether you view this trend as cowardly or as a price for freedom of speech, pseudonyms do allow people to create an identity that reflects their online personality and is quickly becoming the preferred method of choice for users. A report by comment system group Disqus found that 61 per cent of those who comment using their service use pseudonyms while only four per cent use their real identities.

They found that those who used a pseudonym contributed to discussions 6.5 times more than anonymous commenters and 4.7 times more than those signing in through Facebook.

As Disqus say in their report, pseudonyms are used so that people can retain their personality without having to bring any personal ties with them. Because they aren’t commenting on blogs or sites anonymously, their comments are more thoughtful and better received, generating more discussion and further comments on different posts.

Also pseudonyms could be more valuable as they don’t necessarily have to be representing an individual, for example they could refer to people who are representing a brand or a small company who want to interact with consumers and build a connection between the two. Overall the data obtained is pretty light and it would be difficult to draw any major findings from it, but it does signal where communication is going between users and more importantly between users and brands.

An infographic featuring the data can be found here, but what do you think? Only those with real identities (or very creative pseudonyms) may comment below.

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