Online users using pseudonyms account for 61% of all comments posted on commenting platform Disqus.
Disqus is currently the most popular commenting platform, with over 600 million monthly unique visitors across over a million different Web sites.
The service allows users to create an account through which they can use their existing social networking profiles (such as Facebook or Twitter) to comment, use a pseudonym or remain anonymous.
“We've been thinking a lot about the types of personalities that participate in online communities,” says Disqus. “Most people simply compare anonymous versus real identities. It's not that simple. It's clear to us that the most important contributors online are those using pseudonyms.”
Disqus says pseudonyms are often used as they can be more expressive than real names.
“This is different from commenting anonymously - for example someone may use a pseudonym to leave behind personal ties without sacrificing personality.”
Not just trolling
According to Disqus, pseudonyms are the most valuable contributors to communities because they contribute the “highest quantity and quality of comments”.
The research by Disqus used the number of 'likes' a comment receives, as well as the number of replies, as positive markers for quality. The number of times a comment is flagged, marked as spam or deleted was used to identify lower quality comments.
According to Disqus, 61% of the pseudonymous comments on its platform recorded positive quality signals (with 28% neutral and 11% negative), meaning they were more 'liked' and generated more discussion. This is compared to just 34% positive results for anonymous comments and 51% for real-name comments.
While it is commonly expected for anonymous and pseudonymous comments to promote “trolling”, the use of real names only yielded 2% less poor quality comments (both the anonymous and pseudonymous commenters got a negative rating of 11%, compared to 9% for real-name commenters).
The data also showed that overall, just 4% of all comments on the platform are made by users using their real names (via their Facebook profiles), while 35% are anonymous.
Disqus also notes the average commenter using a pseudonym contributed 6.5 times more than anonymous commenters and 4.7 times more than commenters using their Facebook identities.
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