But the premise to that adage is that "you can't beat them." The whole point here is that you can't stop jerks from being jerks, especially in a semi-anonymous context like this forum. If you can't get rid of them, your other options are limited. And in this context, you're not "getting rid of good people." They're merely choosing not to reveal personal information about themselves. Here, at least, it seems that "if you can't beat them, join them (or ignore them)" is pretty sound advice.