Okay, mike,
I will say that it is wrong - but it is wrong only under certain circumstances and/or for certain people under certain circumstances.
I just addressed a similar issue in the Libel/Slander/Defamation section of this forum (see lilyblack's thread titled "Online Harassment"), although not in any depth.
The Supreme Court has said that people have the right to remain anonymous when writing online. A persona that is created online through a user identification may purposely be designed to block knowledge of the true identity of the poster and the information that is provided to readers may have no relationship to the creator's true identity. In fact, the persona may be in direct contradiction to the creator's true identity, so that the real world person can write freely without fear of discovery.
HOWEVER, the anonymity of a poster is only as good as the poster's efforts at keeping his true identity private. If, for instance, I tell a forum member here who Quincy is in real life, I have given up control of my private information. If the forum member chooses to reveal it online, it is MY error, not theirs.
In addition, if I do a lot of online posting using the name Quincy, others may be able to track down my true identity, perhaps through information I have inadvertantly revealed about myself - photos posted on MySpace, family or friends' names listed in Facebook. . . . the real Quincy could be easily traced by anyone with time on their hands and a desire to locate my personal information. If the information is public, or can be accessed by the public without too much effort on their part, it is no longer private information.
There are state and federal laws, and case law, that support the right for people to keep some personal information private. States can prohibit the posting of unlisted phone numbers, the addresses of domestic violence survivors, the addresses and phone numbers of public officials, and it is illegal to publicly publish others social security numbers, certain medical data, financial information.
And, finally, if you break a law under your anonymous user id name (defame someone, invade their privacy, infringe on a copyright or trademark), a court can order the website or ISP to reveal your identity. There is NO anonymity for those who break the law.
So, if one of the forum members is being an a$$, you have to ask yourself how he obtained the information about you. If YOU gave it to him, you have to ask yourself, who is the a$$.
(geez, all of you are fast posters - when I started writing this, only mike and skyymiles had posted)