Technology is such a fickle mistress.You could go out and buy the latest and greatest, top-of-the-line you name it — computer, TV, phone — and by the time you get it home, there’s already something superior out on the market.Something will always be better than what you have, and news can change before it’s even written.This brings forth many challenges for me as the tech writer for The Daily Reveille. I could write a column on a certain topic and a few months later, everything I wrote about would look completely silly due to facts changing or something evolving.Technology could also advance so quickly by the time I write about the topic I pitched a week prior, it could be old news or completely changed.In a funny turn of events, both of these scenarios have finally caught up with me for today’s column. But since I’m quick on my feet — rather, my keyboard in this instance — I can make it work.During the spring semester, I wrote a column about how giving people anonymity on the Internet brings out the worst in some people. It’s humorous how bold some people can get when they’re nothing but a screen name behind a keyboard in an Internet forum.While these “trolls” can ruin a user’s online experience, it’s something that’s been going on and should just be ignored.However, nowhere did I mention users’ real names should be plastered on message boards when posting to combat Internet trolls — that would be silly.While it would alleviate some of the trolling problems, it would easily be more of a danger and concern than a proper solution.Obviously myself and World of Warcraft developer/publisher Blizzard Entertainment didn’t agree (at first).Last Tuesday the publishing giant announced to combat “flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness.” All users posting on the Battle.net forums would have their real first and last names displayed alongside their forum username.For those unfamiliar, Battle.net is a service Blizzard provides for its games – such as StarCraft, World of Warcraft, Diablo, etc. — that not only hosts games but also allows players to talk about current games with other users as well as interact with other features provided by Blizzard.Unfortunately like most Internet forums, Battle.net had its fair share of users that seem to get off on stirring up trouble on the Internet.Therefore, Blizzard devised “Real ID” to help battle forum trolls.While it makes sense on paper that forcing users to post their real names would help tame outspoken posters, it would also easily lead to stalking, sexual harassment and possibly real-life violence, among other possibilities.To show support behind their new campaign, Blizzard employees started including their Real ID alongside their posts to show “it wasn’t a big deal.”Shortly after users discovered one employee’s real name, personal information was posted, including his phone number, picture, age, home address and family members’ names, ages and photos.Yeah, that does sound like a big deal — a big, scary deal.You think Facebook stalking is bad? Some people take their StarCraft matches very seriously and don’t like to lose. What would happen if they found out the player who just humiliated them online lives only 30 minutes away?You may be thinking no one would be stupid enough to hurt or kill someone over a video game, but there are some sick people in this world. Sadly I have many an example of this type of situation, but that’s another column for another day.Fortunately, these questions I just asked can be set aside for now because not only does Blizzard make highly successful games – they also do a good job of listening to their players.A mere three days after Real ID was announced (and two days after I pitched this column) Blizzard announced they would be retracting their Real ID “solution” due to community feedback.Blizzard stated it will still continue forward with other planned improvements to Battle.net in preparation of the upcoming release of “StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty” and the next World of Warcraft expansion, “Cataclysm,” but it will be removing the Real ID feature at this time.The “at this time” phrase worries me because this could mean Real ID could return, but hopefully its nothing but PR speech.The Internet should stay the anonymous cesspool it is right now. Sure, it may make some websites an annoyance to visit, but while Internet flaming may be bad – stalking, harassing and murdering in real life is always worse.–Contact Adam Arinder at [email protected]