Well, I honestly thought that if people knew someone was out there "anon" who was going to behave well, they wouldn't be so tempted to concentrate on the name. It still might work - everyone would have a cookie free day, and we could have anarchy. People could try to guess who "anonymous49' (as flattop mentioned) was, and who anonpostingwithcatonhead was, and who "Anon, but not an old fogey folkie" was, and who...I will stop now.

A funny thing happened when I went anon. I used a nickname that someone recognised within minutes of me posting. I wanted to respond to other things, but felt as if my name had something to do with the point I'd be making. I also worried that a smart-ass joke would be taken as flaming.

Sailor Dan, it wasn't your post, it was the whole attitude of people thinking that even if the anonymous posters' words are reasonable, it's acceptible to be as rude as they want to to the human being who wrote them. It's kind or ironic when the guests are polite and the people with names aren't.

I'm going to give up talking about it because either others don't listen or if they do, they don't care, and if they do care, they don't agree. I'll try to stick to my own advice and ignore the nastier posts. I'll also steer clear of discussions about flamers or threads for responding to idiots. The flamers seem to be in the spotlight already, without me adding to their prominence. If anyone wants to respond to me because you think I am one, please PM me or I may miss it.