Anonymity

I think it all depends where you are at, if you live in a country with a low count of bat shit crazies then i presume it would be safe to use your real name and picture on this and similar sites. But if you live in a country with a high count of bat shit crazies like America or the middle east, Africa ... Then i would not advise using ones real name and or picture.But the thing is anyone can see what you wrote on the internet so a little anonymity goes a long way even if your life and health are not in danger some neighbour could see a post that ridicules god and before long trough the neighbour telephone game you will be labelled as satanic cultist bent on bringing the lord Satan in to this world. ( a few of my personal favorites are: my girlfriend being pregnant for the past 3 years, her beating someone up in a local disqoteck while we where away in Croatia, my friend after cooming home after being hospital for a long time do to an accident apparently having a case of resurection 14 days after his funeral....)Given that things like this can happen and could easily be avoided id say anonymity improves communication on sites like this, by giving people the freedom to speak their minds without such silly or not so silly re precautions

Yeah I sure agree with that. Sort of like a blind taste test when everyone is anonymous. I am not sure that I would be so inclined to agree with someone like say cavediver if I found out that they were actually Rush Limbaugh (although it would be funny as hell if that were true.) I suppose that even knowing that I am a Canadian would cause some to prejudice their assessment of whatever I might be saying.

Well no not in that case because we would all know that your hatred was misplaced and was likely based on something that an American did while impersonating a Canadian.But say for example that I am criticizing someones deeply held religious beliefs or sexual orientation. Most of it just rolls off but some of it does not. If you fling enough shit around then some of it will stick.I am not talking about politeness over substance I just mean that we are polite in person for a reason and that seems to suffer a lot with anonymity.Is it similar to the mob effect?

Hey frakoGlad to see that you haven't been burned at the stake by your neighbours for holding such heretical views...yet.I am in the peaceful countryside here and so it is hard to visualize being attacked for any reason. I would think that any attack for whatever I might say online would be directed at my computer.I noticed that Youtube wants me to use my real name and I am not nearly as comfortable doing it there as I would be here.

The nice thing about EvC is that there are others who agree with cavediver - safety in numbers, consensus. If nobody did and he did turn out to be Rush Limbaugh, then maybe I know more about physics than I thought I did.

It's interesting how humans are capable of such a broad range of relationships. Even with the anonymity here, we can feel pretty close to people. Look at how we all felt about Buzsaw even though we were always fighting with him and we didn't know who he "really" was.

I prefer anonymity because here I can express opinions without others in my real life knowing my true feelings.To be more specific - I come from an extremely religious family. I am "out" as an Atheist to my friends, but I have not disclosed my de-conversion from Christianity to my family. Doing so would result in unnecessary pain and drama that I would prefer to simply avoid (as well as the possibility of being disowned).If I attached my real name to my posts here, a simple Google search would potentially bring a large amount of unpleasantness. Through anonymity, I can have an outlet to express my true opinions. It's not about what I would or would not say to my opponent's face, but rather what I would say at all when everyone else would hear.This also coincides with employment. There are employers out there who will discriminate based on religious or political beliefs. This is less a problem where I currently live, but if for some reason I needed to take a job in Texas, for example, I'd rather not be screwed out of a job because a hiring manager discovered I'm a liberal Atheist.I enjoy the freedom of speech that anonymity gives.

I never really thought about anonymity. I'm pretty much myself here.Oni Perez - on Twitter and Facebook and YoutubeI'll be friends with all you cunts.- Oni

Slut.

If a group orgy was spiritual, would it be like the Bride of Christ and her lover?

Look, She told me She was 18, and I'm tired of having an honest mistake thrown in my face.

Actually no, I've been up to Canada a lot. We have customers up there.And those guys are another reason for anonymity. Like, I'm Facebooks friends with some of our customers. There's plenty of stuff I've said here that I'd never type on Facebook. No shit. Heh, if you're afraid of some shit sticking, then you need to stay away from the anonymous internet. There's things that cannot be unseen.But anyways, no doubt some people will be offended, my question was should they? I guess some people can't help it, do you think that stems from ignorance? That's because the anonymity relieves us of any consequence. That's why I don't feel any responsibility. Especially with the shit I've seen is out there. I suppose. We may wonder if the dark side of anonymity is worth the perks; I don't give a fuck about anything, so I say bring it all on. But I'm sure there's some people who would prefer to dull the world, to keep out all the bad stuff... they say ignorance is bliss.

What? You mean that you really do hate Canadians? Amen brother and that is kind of what I was getting at. My point is that ideas and thoughts are contagious. A reap what you sow kind of thing. I heard an interview with an editor who was talking about his staff who were moderating public comments on news articles. He was saying that those people who did this work suffered from a huge increase in depression, sick days and personal problems and these comments were not even directed at them.So I think that you should feel some responsibility for what you say even if you can never be held accountable because there are consequences. Yeah all censorship should be self censorship in my opinion. When we go anonymous a lot of people's filters seem to shut off as well. I don't see the problem on this site too much at all but it sure is out there.

I think this is a really good point. Anonymity protects against the false sense that these conversations are exclusive in any way. It allows you to speak 'intimately' in a (potential) crowd of millions.

Don't you guys stand by what you say here? Is this not the "you" in real life that you guys are presenting here?What's so abhorrent about the conversations had here that you'd be ashamed to express else where? I get Rahvin's feelings on it being an "out of the closet" atheist, but even then, you are who you are and I don't think hiding behind a mask is doing any good.Maybe it's because I actually talk the way I do here in my real life interactions, or at least I have the freedom to say whatever I want. At first, though, when I started here, I just didn't want friends to see that I'm debating online and think I'm a nerd. I have some real assholes for friends that would mess with me to no end about debating online. But after a while I said fuck it. Most people know I do it now.- OniEdited by onifre, : No reason given.