If personal email addresses were published on the site along with posts, every address could be a target for spam or other undesirable communications; the email addresses aren't required or asked for as post information. Those who post to Mudcat and choose to use names given at birth, or acquired by legal means, have the perfect right to do so, but some of them have been unduly critical of some posters who post as GUEST, even trying to raise a courage issue. Perhaps those who assert a superior courageousness or integrity thereby could find a way to expose all of their address and contact data and earn special praise for valor. Oh, but even the brave have to draw the line somewhere, don't they.

There are respectable reasons for using self-created or pen names, and most posters to Mudcat, including most members, use them. And most of us could not match very many self-created or pen names to "real names."