Whew! Glad I am not a "MODERATOR" (or two) - I would feel insulted! But not as insulted as "Julie", who has her real name as her User ID and in her flashy avatar - yet still gets it misspelled.
Ummm, no. This site enforces PRIVACY for our members, most of which don't need 1,000 SPAM e-mails a day (which happens as soon as your e-mail is publicly listed for all the spambots - ask anybody who has tried). It also protects them from stalkers or other "uninvited" solicitations by e-mail, phone, or snail mail.
Ouch. Even on Crabby Mondays (which this isn't) that is a pretty pointed statement - and totally false (the cowardice part). There are basically three types of people in the world:
- Those that choose anonymity when surfing the web
- Those that use their real name in everything they surf
- Those that don't use the Internet at all
Okay, so let's discard the last category, even though it reflects roughly 80% of the population. Instead, let's take a guess at how many people are in the first group vs. the second. My educated guess is that
over 95% of the people that surf or post on the internet do so anonymously. Indeed, I will extend that guess even further and state that the Net would largely collapse if people were required to declare their real name wherever they surf.
Now, lest you think this is some sort of internet anomaly, guess again. Quick: How many ordinary people have their full name, much less their e-mail and street address, on the outside of their cars? ZERO. How many people wear their full names on their clothing wherever they go? ZERO, besides maybe Ralph Lauren. How many people go to a baseball game or a party and shout out their full name, e-mail address, and street address? ZERO. And if somebody walked up to you on the street and asked for your full name, e-mail, and street address would you give it to them? Of course not - but you might call the cops. Let's face it, outside of your home and work, the vast majority of people you see and interact with every single day are anonymous. And if you had to have your full name and contact information prominently displayed on your clothes and your car you would rarely leave your house.
The simple fact is that unless you are a
vendor who is trying to sell something, you generally do not want your name, e-mail, or other information out there for the world to see. Those same vendors put their names on their cars (vans, etc.) and often on their work clothes (although usually just their first name). But to ask the general population to do something that they would
never do in the "real world" is just silly. It ain't "cowardice" - it's plain ol' reality just as it has been since the dawn of time.
It's safe
because you can be anonymous. If we forced everybody to use their real names and/or publish their e-mail addresses the registered users would drop by at least 95% - as would the post counts. I guess it
could conceivably elevate the usefulness - amongst the 50 or so people left out of the 7000+ currently registered...
And that, my friend, is how the internet works. I'm Chris Marshall and I approved this message.
)
).
As such, we will go to any length to protect our forum member's privacy. Period.
