Anonymity is the condition or state of being anonymous, where a person lacks an identity and individuality. It's often praised as a way to maintain online privacy and speak your mind without pressure, though it can also be abused for vitriol as people often mistake it for free speech.

Some websites offer 'user-facing anonymity', where discussions look 'anonymous' to the end user, but the reality is these posts are tied to an IP address that the management can see. In essence, these actually provide you a pseudonym disguised as anonymity. Most websites offering 'true anonymity' are often stashed away in the dark web, where it is inaccessible unless you hop on a network like Tor, I2P, etc.

It should be noted that rare glimpses of unfiltered, meaningful discussions might occur in these communities since people can speak their mind, without the pressures of keeping up a digital reputation, compared to mainstream pseudonymous discussion zones which come across as an echo chamber or feedback loop that people are hesitant to disrupt because of said pressures.

However, these kinds of discussions are rare for a reason because the flow can easily be disrupted by trolls, shitposters, debate nerds, and mentally unwell people. As a result, most people generally do not see this, coming to the fairly reasonable conclusion that nothing of the sort occurs, or they admit that such discussions will technically occur in extremely rare occasions under extremely specific circumstances.

The concept of anonymity and the idealist notion of 'free speech' are often conflated, but it's very important to make the distinction that the mere offer of anonymity does not automatically imply free speech, which is why some communities will still enforce their 'rules' and 'community standards' against rule-breaking troublemakers. In other words, it's a transient gift, not a quality for idealists to obsess over.

• It's like sending a letter without indicating who the author is. Don't be weird about it.

• Personal Q&A - A question-and-answer format, or an evolution of hate mail.
• On Leading the Anonymous - An essay on leading a majority anonymous internet community.

• Anonymity and Anonymous post on Wikipedia
• Anonymity on the Pixiv Encyclopedia [JA]