Anonymity is one of the most powerful features of online communities.  With the click of a button and a new registration, you can be someone else.  

Do we allow anonymity, and to what extent? 

Anonymity certainly can be used badly, and it has its fair share of criticism.  You can be an anonymous bully, troll, hater, or stalker.  In research conducted by Omernick and Sood in 2013, the popular tech-news site TechCrunch changed from the comment system Disqus to Facebook.  That changed the comments section from anonymous to identity-based participation.  The results before and after showed an increase in quality: when commenters revealed more  of their identity, there were less swear words and higher relevance.  

But online communities of high risk and stigma are very different than mainstream news websites.  Anonymity is a critical safeguard for users in communities like ours, where showing your face and location can potentially be used against you professionally and socially.  It is why AdonisMale will always allow anonymous registrations with the least amount of information.

It doesn't mean that members who are comfortable sharing who they are take down their face photos or obfuscate their location.  But by requiring the least amount of information, we protect those who are most vulnerable and who need the most protection while providing access.  There's also no correlation, at least on our site, between the biggest and most relevant contributions versus identity. 

I find this last point to be especially empowering for users.  By shedding away any baggage of real identity, you're allowed to express yourself more authentically perhaps in a way that you can't do using your real identity.  If you logged in and linked to your Facebook account, we would immediately know your high school, college, your hobbies in golf and action movies, and potentially your circle of friends.  You would moderate your participation, especially in communities of adult content like ours.  But by de-linking yourself and creating a standalone account, you have a way of safely exploring your sexuality with no impact or harm to your real world identity.    

It is also why I am especially troubled by the adult verification systems imposed in the UK, which require users to verify their real world identity before accessing adult communities.  While the intention is good to protect children from seeing adult material, it will immediately dampen the sexual freedoms of UK users.  Users will simply circumvent or visit non-UK sites or potentially unsafe sites that aren't beholden to the same restrictions.  

I find it especially important that I write this blog in context of two macro-events happening on the community and in the world at large.  On the community, we are announcing the launch of Blogs, which is designed to allow users to share more of who they are and who they aspire to be.  At a time when it is ever easier than ever to disclose private parts of your life, I encourage our users to be thoughtful in what they share and how they share it, whether it be on AdonisMale or any social media platform.  There is a way of sharing yourself through your intellect, your words, and through media like images and artwork that may express another version of yourself without giving away any more information than you'd like to disclose.  At a world level, June is the month of Pride, where the LGBT movement and its allies have made tremendous strides in creating a safe and more welcoming world.  It's allowed people to celebrate their pride and love in peace.  But the battle itself is not won, and until there is full equality and treatment under the law, there will always be a minority of sexually confused, ashamed, and lost citizens who need a safe and anonymous outlet.  

For those of you who are proud to be Out, I salute your fight during this month to earn the rights on behalf of all LGBTQ.  For those of you who choose to remain anonymous, you will always have a safe community with us.

Learn more about our commitments in About and why I so fiercely protect our users' right to privacy.