January 2012 Archives | Noumaan Yaqoob

When I arrived on the internet, it was a place full of people from the privileged class. Coming from an under privileged background, I had the feeling that may be people will not like me on the internet. Fortunately, it was the time when anonymity on internet was not considered a threat or a bad thing. Internet itself was a new phenomenon and people were reluctant to share personal information with strangers.

Then I started meeting people using a pseudo name, learned a lot from them. I grew up, and so did the Internet. Slowly and gradually, I realized that the real me is much better than the ‘persona’ I have created for myself. The real me has better stories to tell, better experiences to share, and I am perfectly capable of being just me without being awkward.

I believe that lots of people who want to use internet with pseudo names don’t want to hurt anyone. They are real people with real experiences of their own. They want to be the part of this wonderful conversation we call the web, but they have some concerns of their own. For some people these concerns could be their insecurities, their fears, or maybe they just don’t want to be known and identified with the same identity that they have in real life.

Recently, social networks have started enforcing a real name policy. On its launch, Google+ strictly forbade pseudo names and discouraged people by blocking profiles made using pseudo names.

How a web profile could be real? Anyone can steal a photograph, change it using photoshop, and use it as a profile picture. There are even software available that help you generate real names. Anyone can generate a 100% doubt free real profile within minutes and use it for years before anyone could find out.

I believe that by restricting people from creating pseudo names or anonymous profiles we are interrupting the discussion. These people behind fake profiles have so much to offer and the layer of anonymity provides them the comfort they need to share their stuff. You could still go to small web forums where almost everyone is online with a pseudo name. The flavor, the colorfulness, the texture this anonymity adds is actually very beautiful.

I fear that by discouraging anonymity, we will make our online social networks just like the off line world. People will say what they think others would like hearing. Not everyone has the confidence to be just themselves without fearing judgment from their peers.

Anonymity on Internet Threatens Trust and Credibility?

People with anonymous identities completely understand that other people will be reluctant to trust them. They still want to remain anonymous so I think it is our choice whether we still want to trust them or not. I will trust an anonymous profile if it provided me help in some forum, or asked a question on Quora. I will certainly not hand them my bank account details, buy things from them, or invite them over my house for dinner. The responsibility to protect ourselves from harm on the internet lies in our own hands. If we are using real names and pictures on the social web then we must be equipped with tools to protect our privacy. If someone feels that they cannot maintain their own safety and privacy online then perhaps this is one more reason to remain anonymous.

Credibility should be judged by the action of the people not by their pseudo names or avatars in profile pictures. I wouldn’t mind voting up a good answer on Quora posted by a guy named “MrButterfly”. If the answer is good, helpful, detailed, informative and correct, then this is what I signed up for and I should appreciate it when it is offered to me. However, I may not be able to appreciate MrButterFly if he provided me medical advice, investment advice, offered me to purchase something or hire their services. Just like MrButterFly, I also have the choice to decide what is best and useful for me.

A multi-faced life on the Internet?

Another argument is that it is just not healthy to use a pseudo name among the company of people who are online with their actual names and pictures. I think that people using their actual names and pictures made this choice on their own. If they want their choice to be real, accepted, and appreciated; then they should also accept other people’s choice to remain anonymous and still be accepted and appreciated.

No matter how many profiles this one person creates. They are still an individual, with a conscience; they should be treated as any intelligent being should be treated. If they decide to change into multiple profiles it is their choice. Again we have a choice too, we have a choice to make our own decisions. If we suspect a profile for misbehaving or being inappropriate then we can use our right to ignore them.

We all are living with multiple faces and personas in our real lives. There is a Noumaan that people know at work, and then there is a Noumaan that people know at home. Noumaan, the same person is seen differently by different groups of people. Whether it is Noumaan’s deliberate choice to be seen differently by different groups, or not; we are no one to judge him for that. If this rule applies in real life, then why it can’t be applied on the Web? Don’t we all want web to be just as real as our offline lives?

I am not suggesting that we should all start living multiple lives on the web. I am saying that most of us already live multiple lives in the eyes of people around us. How they see us depends on how we interact with them and this interaction develops an image of us in the eyes of others. Sometimes we even try to give an impression of ourselves that is not real us. Sometimes we want to scare some people off, so we put a rude angry face on. Sometimes we want our bosses to like us so we put a happy go lucky, hardworking office guy face on, there are lines that we use at home to make our wives happier, there are lies we tell to entertain our children.

In the end, I wonder exactly what is real. How real we are? And what right to do we have to question the reality of each other?

Further Reading:

Plinky is here to help people create inspired content. Sometimes you want to blog or write something but have no idea what to write about. Plinky helps you by giving a prompt or a question for you to answer. Questions are generic and anyone can answer them. The purpose that these questions serve is to spark a conversation by asking a question and inspiring the users to create content.

I have used Plinky and have answered a couple of prompts. Today, I decided that instead of responding to the prompt on Plinky, I should write about Plinky itself.

Using Plinky to Create Non-generic Content

Everyone loves to be asked questions, they are the best way to start a conversation and to break the ice. However, as a professional blogger I have created some blogs that are focused around specific topics. Since Plinky asks generic questions, these questions are not relevant to the topics discussed on my blogs.

I still think that these prompts can be used even on strictly focused blogs and websites. For example, if today’s prompt was “Who’s the last person you had a really great conversation with? What were you discussing?”. I can use this prompt by referring to a conversation I had with someone regarding one of the topics that I discuss on my blogs. I don’t know how I will be using Plinky in the future, but I do hope that it helps me create content.

Plinky is a project by Automattic, the company behind the WordPress. The user interface of Plinky is intutive and fun. A new user directly lands on the page showing today’s prompt. They can take the prompt and answer it anywhere, or they can create an account on Plinky and answer it there. Plinky has also made it very simple to post an answer quickly. You can search for images from Flickr to attach with your answer or upload your own images.

Once you have answered the question, Plinky will suggest you more ways to share it across the social web and on your own blog or website. You can also check out how other Plinky users answered the prompt, leave your comments, follow people and make new friends. I have not yet made any acquaintances there, so don’t know how active this community part of Plinky is.

Users cannot only answer the prompts they can also suggest a prompt or a question to be asked. For example today’s prompt was asked by a user Simple18. I think it would be great fun to see how people answer to a question that you have asked and follow the conversation around.

I had this tiny issue when I tried to post an answer from Plinky to this website. The issue was that on my web host’s advice I had disabled a file in the wordpress installation for this site. The file is xmlrpc and according to my web host it can be misused and cause issues so I had it locked. Without xmlrpc.php, one can not post an answer directly from Plinky to a self hosted WordPress website. However, Plinky also provides embed code which you can manually enter by creating a new post.

Using Plinky on Social Media

I have also used prompts to increase activity on my social profiles. Like I said earlier, people love to be asked questions. I have asked Plinky prompts on Facebook and it has instantly increased participation. I have noticed similar results on Twitter, and even got some new followers by asking random questions.

The lesson I have learned from this experience is that people like to be asked generic, light hearted, and interesting questions. We all have so much to say, so many stories to tell and such prompts provide us all a chance to share our stories.