An anonymous commenter/blogger keeps nagging away at you in comments on your website which you think are annoying or unfair.

You find out who s/he is.

Are you behaving properly if you announce on your site the person’s name to make them go away or at least calm down, the more so if it looks as if the name has been withheld by the commenter to avoid professional embarrassment for the views expressed?

Have a look at the links at Instapundit where the issue is hammered out crossly. 

Imagine this scene.

You are in a pub with a group of people yammering away about something, and someone you don’t know starts having a strong go at you.

That person knows who you are. You ask for his/her name to help you work out where they are coming from on the argument.

The person concerns loftily says that that is none of your business – you should respond solely on the basis of the arguments being presented.

Someone whispers to you: "That guy is Fred Smith from the Politics Department of the University!"

Are you really out of order to say, "Hey, are you really Fred Smith from the University Politics Department?"?

And is the said Fred Smith entitled to feel aggrieved that you have attacked his privacy by proclaiming his name?

No. And no.

Part of having professional status and responsibility is to help public discourse proceed in a civilised way between people who accept certain standards of truth and accuracy.

Hiding behind anonymity is (largely) fine if you want to cast light on the workings of a system while staying within it to help explain the world and its contradictions. See Orwell Prize Winner Night Jack.

But hiding behind anonymity and wanting to use it to annoy other people is quite different.

Let’s hope that Professor Blevins enjoys his new-found notoriety.