User:Jacedc/Identity concealment
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Some Wikipedians choose to conceal their identity. Since its inception, Wikimedia has operated under the principle that the background of its contributors does not matter. When a user on Wikipedia chooses to not divulge personal information, that should be respected. That's one of the benefits of using Wikipedia through a user account instead of operating anonymously (because anon editors' IP addresses are exposed). They likely choose to do so to keep themselves safe on the internet, or to avoid being subject to the following based off of their gender, ethnicity, religion, political beliefs, age, nationality, profession, etc.:
- discrimination
- exemption or exclusion
- exceptionalism (i.e. special treatment)
- statistical herding (becoming the object of undue examination of interest)
Wikipedians are not required to put any personal information on the site (but they are free to if they wish). Sometimes personal information is useful to other editors so that they may investigate a potential conflict of interest, but users are under no obligation to tell anyone anything about themselves. Additionally, the disregard of personal background is highly encouraged. Whether an editor is black or white, a female or a male, a teenager or an adult, a Muslim or a Christian, etc., does not matter. What does matter is the value and validity of their contributions. In a similar way that you comment on the content, not the contributor, you should only consider the matter of the content and not the personal information of another Wikipedian.