As a teenager and while in University I also liked playing Dungeons and Dragons and other similar games. Its neat to come up with a different person and then try and play that person out in a game. At one point I considered starting an entirely new and separate Mudcat identity. I was bulding up an image of him in my mind and adding details. It was fun; a pleasant exercise in imagination. However I soon realized that it would take a lot more time than I was willing to give to keep it up so I dropped the idea. So some days I post and I'm bitchy and other days I post and I'm cheerful, it simply means that one day I'm feeling bitchy and other days I'm feeling cheerful.

Peter T., in one of his TFRTD, talked about being shy. I mentioned that shyness changes with circumstance or the mode of communication. So maybe people who are not shy can be the same in all places but for those who are shy being on the Net can bring out qualities they don't show in face to face or phone call situations. If you're used to behaving differently depending on company its not that big a stretch to come up with a variety of Net characters.

An intent to deceive will worry people. Costumes and multiple identities are possible means to deceit, so people worry about them. Can't stop that. Spending more time reading the messages and less time trying to figure out who said what to who seems a sensible way of dealing with the worry.