I know at this point a lot of it is related to money, but there was a transitional time that led to this point that I’m still confused by.
What details changed about online spaces that made many folks more comfortable sharing so much under their real names between the “Be careful!” times to where we are now?
For me, it came down to contributing to open source projects in a meaningful or professional capacity. Commits and correspondence generally contain identifiable contact information, and if you have a professional website or email address using your real name then it’s only a matter of time before the two worlds collide.
As a result, I stopped using aliases for most things in the early 2000s. For Steam and other gaming platforms, sure, but for social media, it’s just plain old me.