My original intent was to learn something about privacy on a forum such as Mudcat Cafe. Many here have expressed concerns about Guest postings and I thought if Guest's knew their identity was fairly easily known they might consider what they posted, regardless if the post was good, bad, or indifferent.

As Bill D thoughtfully wrote and I agree with him:

"It is handy (and often fun) to be able to log out and use joke names to have innocent fun being "Old Man River" or "Emperor of the Universe"...or to do things like play the "Secret Santa" game, or ask a potentially embasassing question about medical stuff, for instance."

And:

"But when being 'guest' for petty and hateful purposes, or to impersonate someone, or to threaten someone, or to intentionally stir up problems happens, it is serious business, and I'm GLAD Joe and other administrators have some tools to deal with things!!!"

Credit should be given to members like ClintonHammond and catspaw49 because I doubt they seldom, if ever, use a Guest moniker and are willing to be judged up front with their comments even though there are some members, like mem who often disagree (privately most of the time) with the content or language in their posts. If the moderators here accept what they post then that should be okay and no one is forced to read any individual post or thread anyway.

Mudcat is very fairly moderated and kudos to Joe and others who take the time necessary to keep this forum the very best of its kind.

Whoops! I almost posted my screen name.