Just to complicate the matter even further: The discussions of pseudonomizing [sic] bloggers and commenters has an added piquancy for me, considering that on many of the racial and ethnic blogs i examine, the author's choice of pseudonym often reflects a cultural or personal identity. I came to this conclusion before the rise of the social networks, where many people employ the same username across multiple platforms as populations migrate to keep up with their old friends or to establish a consistent online presence/brand. (or maybe they're like me, where i use the same name across multiple platforms because i'm lazy LOL) Changing their chosen pseudonym, which unlike their given name or patronym is actually a self-made identity, seems kind of arrogant. Is it the case that the mainstream online communities you study don't have any personal connection to their pseudonyms? Are the names just nonsense syllables chosen to satisfy arbitrary registration for membership in a given community? I'm curious; do those of you who change names to protect privacy consider your change to be equally reflective of the OP's discursive identity choice? Sorry for the disjointed logic...i'm still trying to recover from a workout.