Amos, I am not flaming here. I honestly want to know why, if the anonymity thing is so disturbing to you, you on the Internet?

As countless people have pointed out, there are many members who remain anonymous and active here, because they use a pseudonym. Now, over time they may reveal some "personal" information about who they claim to be (remember, the whole idea of an identity is very slippery on-line because so many people misrepresent themselves), which makes the people they are trying to interact with feel more secure about them. But really, unless you have met and become close friends with someone here on Mudcat, you really don't know much about anyone here, and whether they really are who and what they claim to be on-line.

I understand that some members have met one another, and that those folks really do feel a sense of community here with one another which is genuine and legitimate. But most people lurking and/or posting here have never met another Mudcat member, and likely never will. Remember, there are many folks who lurk here and post only rarely. Some are members, some are guests. They usually don't reveal personal information about themselves in forums like these. The people who post to these forums have needs of the extrovert/performer. But a whole lot of folks are observers. More quiet and thoughtful.

At any rate, I just wanted to point out that while some here seem to using the anonymity issue as justification for playing the flame warrior game, by claiming they are doing it on behalf of the majority of us, let me just say this. For me, anonymity is a total non-issue because I understand it to be part of the nature of the beast known as the Internet. Whether someone posts anonymously or with a pseudonym (which I find much more annoying, frankly) or with their real life name doesn't matter to me one iota. I respond to what the post says, not to who is writing it. To my way of thinking, that is the best one can do in an environment where I never see, hear, smell, touch the person I am communicating with. It is nearly impossible to suss out the nature and essence behind a post, unless one becomes familiar with the poster. While that is the case for some here, it will never be the case for everyone, because there will always be strangers and guests coming and going freely here.

As I said, the Mudcat Mafia acts as if this forum were their private clubhouse, and as if the strangers and guests coming and going here all the time and to be viewed as bad people with sinister motives, until "proven" otherwise. To be proven otherwise requires that they reveal personal information to a group of people they don't know in a public space, without any way of protecting their vulnerable selves. To my way of thinking, that is just too much to ask of many people. For the gregarious, extrovert types, that isn't usually a problem. But for many of the rest of the folks who stumble in here, I'm betting more lurk or leave than ever become regulars, guest or otherwise.