Verification
The act of verifying your account on steemit by posting a photo of you holding up a timestamped sign with steemit on it is quite common. It puts a face to the account. Doing this can make people perceive you as more trustworthy. Because they will have something to fall back on if you do something wrong. This way you can build a good reputation for yourself.
Verifying yourself can be particularly helpful if you already have a good reputation outside of steemit, or if you're widely known. Examples of this are @dollarvigilante (Jeff Berwick), @barrycooper and @charlieshrem. They use their outside reputation to almost instantly become top steemit users.
Anonymity
Anonymity disconnects your identity on steemit from your real identity. It protects you from doxing, real-life harassments or even worse. It gives you the ability to change and have second chances. If you verify your account, personal information will be forever on the blockchain. Anonymously you are also able to build a good reputation on steemit.
Why would you want to be anonymous? After all, if you're not a bad person, if you're doing nothing wrong, you should have nothing to hide. Because you never know what someone can or will do with your personal information.
Conclusion
If you have a good outside reputation, it might be a smart idea to verify yourself on steemit. You are already widely known, and your cards are already on the table. It will boost your steemit career.
In almost all other cases I would advise against putting personal information on the blockchain, to protect yourself from potential real-life harassment.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this issue
As long as a user doesn't claim to be "somebody" we should respect the right to their anonymity. Users shouldn't feel pressured to identify themselves until they claim they own a website, business, or are a "known" person.
Anonymity is also good for anti-censorship. There are those from countries that could be arrested and/or persecuted based on their public opinions.
Anonymity also has its drawbacks. Users should evaluate a person's truthfulness and sincerity based on their previous posts. It takes time to build trust.
If someone like @dantheman or @stellabelle writes a post giving away something they are "known" and have a reputation here and outside of Steemit.
If @unkownuser writes their first post tomorrow promising to give away 100 SBD or claiming that they live in Venezuela and are in desperate need of money it should be met with some skepticism.
@unknownuser should still be entitled to remain anonymous, they shouldn't be badgered into "verifying" themselves. At the same time users should be aware that they need to use their own judgment before giving away upvotes or donating SBD.
Edit: Try to avoid using #introduceyourself as a tag. I really hope we get bio pages on this platform. The #introduceyourself tag is becoming filled with posts that don't contain actual information about a person. Thanks!
concerning your edit: My reasoning for using the #introduceyourself tag was that verification is most common there, and that people should think more carefully about it.
you summed it up pretty well
Every Platform I write, I use my own photo. I have been trying to figure out how to post a profile picture here, and still have not figured out how to do it. I would appreciate some help in this regard. Thanks!
Steemit does not have a function for profile pictures yet.
I missed your post before, actually the first post from my series will be highly related to this topic. This is a very important observation.