Talk:Yang Xiao Long/@comment-32354841-20180511073755/@comment-25936766-20180511153309

It's been peaceful because that setting fights off the Online Disinhibition Effect.

When you're anonymous and no one actually knows who you are, you feel like you can act without any sort of real social/physical consequences. While this does have benefits for introverts and people with "questionable tastes", it's also the reason the Internet is full of assholes.

But when you must have an account of some sort - and thus "a public face" - the ODE is reduced because now you do have an identity, you're not 100% anonymous, and while your real self is still pretty safe, your virtual self can still face consequences, even if less impactful than they would be in real life.