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Speaking of Anonymous as the collective identity it has become..

..why is it that, when someone creates new/quality content, they will often abandon the Anonymous namesake? This isn't meant to be obvious. The mindset being something like, "I worked hard to make this, therefore I deserve recognition and its rewards." I'm not against the idea of people reaping the benefits of their labor, but if the benefits are mainly kudos from other anonymous or pseudo-anonymous people online, I can only imagine the point being to build credibility or to use a name as a folder, where all of your achievements can be filed together. Otherwise, it would be no different to use no name at all.

An example: I've been listening to the Chocolate Rain 8-bit Remix a lot recently - maybe you don't enjoy it, I do. According to the source I stumbled upon, the song was made by "coda". Great, the song kicks ass and it was made by coda - I suppose this could imply that coda kicks ass, or at the very least is skilled at making chiptunes; maybe some will think coda is a gamer-nerd loser with nothing better to do, who knows.. it's a two-way street. For the person behind the name, it must feel good to see that so many have enjoyed his work or have asked him to share his knowledge - very flattering.

If coda had shared his work with no name whatsoever, would it sound any different? Not to my ears, no - but to someone who has heard of coda before, who knows the name, prior works, or even the online communities he is a part of, his chiptune may be differently considered. Yes, we all know.. it's an observation that's been beaten to death. As for the praise his work received, the "on-topic" stuff would still be there (eg. "i love this song!", "what did you use to make this?") and he would not be deprived of the feel-good motivation for sharing his song with everyone for free. The only thing the person behind the name would have differently is the positive or negative credit associated to it. Of course, using a name causes all sorts of "off-topic" stuff to show up (eg. "you should get rid of the google ads on your site.."), things that while related to the name, don't really address the Chocolate Rain remix.

Now after playing Internet Detective I see that coda's favorite anime is NGE - some may find this lacking in taste.. does it make his music any less appealing? Does the fact that Lewis Carroll photographed children in the nude make Through the Looking Glass less of a book? How about something that isn't so liberally interpretable, then: was his math any less valid? The problem isn't in using names, the problem is in how we humans will cross-associate completely unrelated things that happen to be linked by a common name. Anonymity is really there just to save us from our own bad habits and logic.

Personally, I don't mind pouring time and effort at personal/social expense into making something, then offering it up for free to whoever wants it. I enjoy seeing it spread, being used/cited, affecting how people think and so on. This is how most of the Internet works, and I imagine these same positive feelings are felt by others for their works, too. You don't need to have a name attached to experience these benefits, so why invite the potential stereotypes, misunderstandings, or drama? To build up a name so the next time you break from anonymity and choose to use it people pay more attention to you?

Looking back to the beginning of this post, if Anonymous as a collective identity is to be anything, you have to be willing to genuinely contribute to that identity - the wheat, too, not just the chaff. Funny, though, perhaps the name "Anonymous" has been distorted beyond repair by the content and actions associated with the various *chans. Maybe by posting as Anonymous within a certain hemisphere of the web, one is ironically inviting people to assume they are a chronic masturbator, obsessed with anime, or an egotistical Internet tough-guy. Maybe contributors feel that the other Anonymous who perpetuate the stereotypes they dislike are getting a free ride from the benefits of their work, or they simply don't want their work negatively associated with it. To them, I would guess that Anonymous is just another pseudonym, why not choose one of their own?