I can see why he'd want a real name. And that's how he can keep it clean- people know that what they do online is public. Plain and simple. However, I think in the case of a BBS, even one as big as Prison Board, probably would not be routinely checked by employers, unless they suspect you for something already and they track all your from-work internet activity to the Prison Board or any other BBS. Text-only conversation has a tendency to become so impersonal that it's very easy for someone to misconstrue what you say. Journalists have known this for decades. As I say, the power of the internet is that anyone can publish anything; the bane of the internet is that anyone can publish anything. And of course, anyone with the right tools can track everything you do too.