People who use pseudonyms when participating in online communities make comments of higher quality than those who use their real names or remain anonymous, according to researchers. 

This finding was obtained from a study of nearly half a billion comments made ??by more than 60 million users of Disqus , web platform for comment. The company was based on information taken from the ranks of sites that use the service. The analysis showed that the posts made ??by people using pseudonyms were “likes” or answers for 61% of those who read the content, in comparison 51% of users who have entered their real names and 34% of those who preferred to remain anonymous. 

People with fancy names also have higher rates of participation: 6.5 times and 4.7 times more than the anonymous users and those who post their real identities, respectively. The Disqus admits that this survey about the quality of feedback is not an exact science and that the methodology can be considered “scientific quality”. The company published an infographic with all the results obtained from the analysis. 

In addition, the service has interests that the owners of sites that allow visitors to use pseudonyms, as Disqus competes with Facebook, which addresses many other uses as a platform for comment. Like Mark Zuckerberg’s social network requires the user to use your real name, tied to the Facebook profile is an advantage if the Disqus website owners believe that this identification is changing the quality of feedback to keep people who want to use pseudonyms to participate in certain forums. 

The use of “nicknames” has been a controversial subject among many online communities. When Google +, Google’s social network, demanded that its users used their real names , the measure was met with protests.