All of the following is my own opinion, each statement should be read with an implied "for me," "personally," "I think/believe" in it. I'm just sharing my perceptions and not trying to tell anybody what they should believe. I'm right, though.

Nobody you're arguing with is as much of an asshole in real life as they seem in print. I'm not sure why some people want to believe they are or respond to them as such.

Members occasionally go anonymous just to say something nasty to a person they don't like. I don't like it, I don't respect it, and I think it's chickenshit. It's one way I judge if I really should be saying what I'm saying - if I start thinking "jeez - I oughtta log out if I'm gonna say THAT," then it's a clue I shouldn't be saying it at all. It keeps me honest, and it keeps me from acting like too much of an asshole. I also know how I've felt as an 'innocent bystander' when someone else does it. Was this anonymous asshole somebody I thought I liked and respected? Who is it, I wonder? Was I nice to them, because if I was, I'm going to feel a bit betrayed. This going anon to post something they're just a bit ashamed of is the only thing that bothers me about anonymity these days.

Writing about personal matters, being a character/persona, asking questions, or even expressing an opinion such as "I really hate Emu Burgerflotz's version of that song!" don't bother me. Not so long as posts don't contain negative things about people who're likely to read them.

When I first posted song lyrics, I did it anonymously. I did it that way because I was worried that people would say "nice song" simply because they felt a compliment was the polite thing to do for someone they 'knew'. Like when you're in a song circle or HearMe or elsewhere, and a person does a song completely off-key and folks say "nice song." I WANTED people to tell me about things they didn't like, problems, and flat-out mistakes. Nobody did anyway. Either the songs were perfect, people figured "It might be someone I'm friends with, and will be upset if I don't like their song," or "this is a shy person who's afraid of saying she wrote the song, so I'd better give her some encouragement." Or maybe folks just weren't good at critiquing things. That was then. These days, there's an equal chance somebody will just tell a person their song sucks because they don't like the individual.

In any case, posting anonymously is perfectly fine if a person doesn't want to deal with prejudiced (against OR for) responses. People carping about the anonymity of someone who's being reasonable and considerate is much more obnoxious.

McGrath, I think fear is a big factor with people who are determined to post as a nameless GUEST. They don't want folks to read their past history here, they don't want their posts linked. Why they don't is just too deep of an issue to try to figure out. They might think people won't pay any attention to them if they know "Oh...it's that person again," or they may be concerned about people following them around and flaming them whenever they post. Maybe it's happened previously, or maybe they're just worried because it could happen. Life's too short to try to figure out their motives.