It's not just selling your data to third parties, it's collecting the data in the FIRST place that alienates many users. Many people, for example, don't realize that Facebook is tracking them all over the web, or that their smartphone Facebook app is tracking their exact location 24/7. You can download apps that show you where your Facebook friends are at that particular moment on a Google map. Wow, old Fred's in that topless joint again. Why is she in Bill's house at 2 a.m.? Why do I get ads for Home Depot when I'm driving past Home Depot? I'm really trying not to make a passe' joke about "Big Brother." And many people don't realize that signing in with Facebook, or just having those little like/share icons on a web page, enables Facebook to run scripts that can track everything you do on that page. OK, so they say they "don't sell your data to third parties." Big deal. That doesn't cover the bases, not even close.

I was a hardcore USENET user back in the 80s, as well as a BBS'er back in the days of 300-1200 baud dialup modems. So I've seen quite a bit come down the wires. I've never been comfortable with using my real name on a system, especially these days when everything except your toilet is owned and tracked by Google, Facebook or Microsoft. It's just not needed for most online discussion forums. But let me shine a flashlight on a couple of things: 1. A lot of people here have decried the use of real names by Facebook, and indeed it seems like good cases have been made. However, keep in mind that there are over a billion people out there who do NOT mind using their real names (except for those who use fake IDs) on Facebook. You're talking to something of a choir here. 2. There are some instances where using real names has been extremely beneficial, when the users had a sincere interest in knowing who they were talking to. For example, I'm on a Facebook group consisting of people who grew up in a certain town. We get on there and talk about the good old days. There must have been 15-20 times somebody has posted something like, "I remember being in Ms. Hall's 4th grade class back around 1954...." and his Facebook name is, fictitiously, "Greg Williams." And next thing you know he's getting a response like, "oh, my GOD!!!! Are you the Greg Williams that lived across the street from me in that green house on South 8th? I can't BELIEVE it!! It's been SIXTY YEARS!!!!!" Honestly, more than once I have sat at my keyboard almost in tears from this kind of situation. If we were all using names like "hotdog88," it never would have happened. Other such real-name forums or groups may be those for high school graduating classes, or members of a club. So there is definitely a place for real names on a system, although the concerns about security and privacy are absolutely justified. Roowark (not my real name....)

Nobody cares about a site using JS or threaded posts, because the average everyday user doesn't even know what JS *is* much less anything about "disabling" it. It's that "ham radio complex" that so many tech-heads are guilty of: they love all the bells and whistles and flashing lights of a ham radio room with dials and gauges and notch bypass filters and whoopeekipperedherring. But the everyday radio listener just wants to press the "On" button. The perpetual problem with software/UI development is that all too often you have the former designing products for the latter. When condescension kicks in an you have the JS-hater referring to the everyday user as "all those retards," the whole thing becomes disgusting. Same thing for threaded forums. For the average person, they're impossible to follow. Somebody posts a reply, and it's buried 7 screens down; he won't even know it's there, and has to hopscotch all over the place to find the more recent posts. The "flat" format has become almost universal simply because it works for most people. It's intuitive and logical, and more closely simulates a real conversation. Think about 5 people conversing in a cafe. One person says something. Then somebody else says something. Then another person says something. And so on. So there's a sequence of statements, one after the other, all within the same topic. Each person's statement relates to what somebody just said, or to what's been said so far. Thus, you have the "flat" forum design, which works the exact same way. It mirrors how human communication occurs. I've been using online forums and discussions since ARPANET, and I hate threaded forums, and consider using one to be an approximate metaphor for stepping in a pile of fresh elephant poop.