”There are very few people that even glance at the Mudcat”

It only takes one, Dave - ask any of the former Mudcatters whose IDs became known to The Troll, and whose accounts elsewhere were taken over/cloned and bombarded with Photoshopped photos and other material purporting to show them, for example, supporting the BNP, or speaking in support of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, and/or other defamatory material.

”There is far more information that people could use against you elsewhere

Undoubtedly true, Dave. However, my purpose in preserving my anonymity here, and on other forums of which I’m a member using different pseudonyms, is to prevent, as far as possible, individuals following me around the Internet from forum to forum making mischief. I willingly accept that anything I post here may attract antipathy here, and I can live with that, but I’ll be damned if I’ll accept disputes on this forum being dragged over on to other forums.

As I’ve said on a number of occasions, I’m happy to divulge my identity privately to ‘Catters whom I respect and trust (even though they and I may not always agree and, in fact, may disagree very strongly from time to time) - there are a number who already know who I am in The Real World, including you and Steve of course, and I’m perfectly relaxed about that - but there are those in whom I have little or no trust and for whom I have zero respect, and those are the ones from whom I want to protect my identity.

I understand perfectly that others don’t share my view on this issue, and I respect the views (and, frankly, the courage) of people like Steve and Nigel, who choose to post under their real names. But the forum rules permit the use of pseudonyms, and I choose to go that route.