NX-Files

A while back one of The Standard author's decided to 'out himself and reveal his real identity. Good on him, he probably should've done this ages ago. I was curious whether Kiwiblog or Whale Oil has previously outed him. I couldn't find a reference, but it was humorous to read r0b's previous claims why he blogged anonymously.

I then found a good post by DPF which outlining The Standards use of anonymity.

DPF put's paid to lprent's frustration when people refer to The Standard collectively. FYI - I stopped commenting on The Standard when lprent threatened to ban me for referring to The Standard collectively.

So why has r0b suddenly outed himself? He claim's it's because he's beating Whale Oil to the punch with regards to the recent Whaleleaks fiasco. This maybe the case, but I'm wondering whether it has more to do with how left-wing blogs interact with the media.

Right bloggers David Farrar and Cameron Slater (Whale Oil) have an ever growing mainstream media profile. Is r0b trying emulate their success by blogging under his real name? Because to-date there are no prominent leftie bloggers in the media mainly because they hide behind anonymity.
If this is the case - good luck to him because one thing I noticed when trawling through the archives of Kiwiblog is that The Standard was once paid a lot more attention. I guess when you repeat the same slanderous crap again and again - year on year, the blog has marginalised itself. Plus today there's more competition in the leftie blogosphere with'Red Alert' & 'The Dim Post'.

With regards to r0b's identify, a quick search reveals exactly who he is. Interesting that he works in the computer Science department. Anyone who's studied computer science will know that people who inhabit these facilities are notorious for their detached view of reality. If you ever wanted to be belittled & made to feel like an imbosile try approaching a computer science teacher with a problem.

I do hope that r0b doesn't have any problems from student or anyone now that he is public. If I were to ever met r0b, I'd be nothing but polite and respectful.
While I support r0b's decision to go public, given he's in a teaching position at a university & his rather uncompromising political views, I now understand why he choose to stay anonymous for so long.