I don't have any problem with people signing up under different names unless they are doing so to control an argument, sway the opinion of the community by misrepresenting consensus or attack another person in as many different ways as they can.
For instance, if one person is rude to another, then that's one thing. They can write 10 posts and flame off on that person. But if they log in as ten different people, then that's a very different experience for the person getting flamed. Then instead of having one person yelling at you, which you can elect to ignore them and know it's the opinion of one person, you are suddenly ganged up upon by many people - when in truth, it's only one person taking many pot shots from many different angles.
That's the harm and emotionally can be a lot more devastating to the target.
Most people do use fictional names, but hopefully, that doesn't mean fictional stories or misrepresentation. Real time, real concern and caring is invested on the part of most members of any community. Of course, there is always the chance and probability that this will happen. And I understand this whenever I join an on-line community, but do I care if someone is playing with me in this way? Yeah, I do, but I'm not going to waste too much time wondering who is doing it and who's not, because I'm not a mind reader.
I have to take what most people say on face value and walk away from others I don't get a good feeling about.
Finding one's voice to me means also taking responsibility for what I say.
As I think about this, I guess it kind of reminds me of the dynamics of relational aggression. In real life, people (most commonly believed to be women and girls) who can't be openly aggressive will use other people, other relationships to hurt an individual, to express negative feelings they, themselves, cannot openly own. They get other people to do it for them.
Perhaps, in cyber space, they can use other identities - it's still the same principle. Not owning your own negativity but expressing it through other personalities (instead of other people) - whether real or fictional. The bottom line is you get to hurt someone else while preserving your own image - fictional or otherwise - in your cyber community. It is the same basic inability to claim ownership of feelings and thoughts.
I don't think it's the taking of identities that's hurtful as much as their use when used in this way.
When one person creates fictional people 1, 2, 3, 4, etc, for the purpose of supporting their position or attacking someone they don't like, it seems less to me about breaking free from voicelessness than wanting to win an argument or beat someone over the head with many bats by cloning yourself. In that way, it's also an attempt to silence the voice of another...or punish them for using it.
