>> "What I’ve observed is the opposite—that anonymity facilitates honest discourse, creates a level playing field for ideas to be heard, and enables creativity like none other."
One big counterpoint to this I can see is ask.fm. People are given total anonymity and they use it to berate and bully others (I believe it's also lead to several suicides). Anonymity can work great if the community is good. Here on HN I think it works pretty well. On ask.fm it clearly worked horribly but only because the community using it used it that way.
In the end I think it's all down to the people using the service and anonymity or true identity plays only a very small role.
Edit: and the downsides of anonymity can been seen below in '784927489234's comment.
One big counterpoint to this I can see is ask.fm. People are given total anonymity and they use it to berate and bully others (I believe it's also lead to several suicides). Anonymity can work great if the community is good. Here on HN I think it works pretty well. On ask.fm it clearly worked horribly but only because the community using it used it that way.
In the end I think it's all down to the people using the service and anonymity or true identity plays only a very small role.
Edit: and the downsides of anonymity can been seen below in '784927489234's comment.