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Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

"anonymity" makes people think their shit has no consequences.

of course the internet is real-- a lot of money gets exchanged on it every day.

but anonymous message boards are not the same as business communications and they are no substitute for bodily friends. the internet is a horrible drinking companion, for example. alcohol causes enough drama in face to face communications, alcohol + the internet, guess what?

anyway, anonimity is not a black and white issue. anonimity is a choice-- not everyone wants to live their lives under the scrutiny of strangers, some of which are complete nutcases.

the post you did about people getting fired for a facebook post-- exactly. there are parts of our lives that we'll share with some people and not others. having all your information out there as a sort of "permanent record" leaves you vulnerable to snooping, crazies, bigots, teabaggers who wanna kill the president but can't and would rather shoot you, etc.

i like to keep my anonimity here for a few reasons: i have seen enough lunatics go by to know i don't want them showing up at my door. i have had internet "friends" who suddenly are some day in a bad mood and turn on you for no particular reason. face-to-face friends have conflicts too, but there is usually a greater degree of diplomacy involved when the other person is staring at your mug.

communication on the internet is a lot more fragile than face to face, we lack a good sense of inflection and body language, and things get misinterpreted and taken out of context all the time. flame wars happen on the internet but you don't see people screaming at each other in the street like some jerry springer show. to expect that in the middle of an anonymous crowd everybody is going to be nice and civilized is naive-- so anonymity in that crowd can be a form of self-defense. nobody wants to be meat for the vultures.

while i don't mind sharing my private information with people i get to trust as sane and likeable, i don't like to put it in the hands of others who may hide behind that anonimity to do pester me, attempt harm, go apeshit, stalk me, steal my money, etc. i've seen enough blatherskites and khchrises and other people lose their shit here and in other places to know you can't fully trust internet entities.

even on identifiable places like facebook, ridiculous useless drama can ensue because of the distance that the internet creates: during the world cup, my wife posted some innocent comments rooting for a particular team and some "friend-of-a-friend" launched into a tirade against her because she was rooting for the opposition. that type of shit doesn't happen when people sit around a tv together. i've watched world games in bars where half of the crowd goes for one team and the other half goes for the other and everyone behaves civilized. same last year's superbowl, went to a party where it was mostly saints supporters but others were for the colts and some were talking about their dogs. no screaming.

i think this has to do with the fact that on the internet even people with names and addresses are free from the consequences of their own actions: you push somebody in real life and you get pushed back, but on the internet you can scream and nothing happens. so EVERYONE is more rude on the internet. to paraphrase kissinger in his observation of university politics, "the politics are so vicious because the stakes are so low".

beyond that, the internet is open to everybody, it's not by invitation only. just like i wouldn't want strangers to walk into my house uninvited, i wouldn't want some random nutcase to barge into my private life.

some people enjoy living their lives in full display to others, while some enjoy a measure of privacy. it's a choice. maybe one day we'll all live in a police state where everybody's moves get tracked online and everyone has access to your "permanent record" and be able to dig out all your fuckups, but i will resist that for as long as i can.

take for example your weed smoking-- you're fine with it, boardies are fine with it, but if you were unemployed and looking for a job, would you want every employer to dig out this fact and judge you unfairly because of it? would you want a cop to start following you around so he can catch you because he found out on the internet that you like to smoke weed? not me, no fucking way. but to each their own.

i do have a facebook profile i use only to communicate with friends, i use skype to talk to my parents, i am part of a number of other message boards where i act more "professional", and there are places where i like to horse around, like a carnaval where people wear masks and get drunk and dance half naked. there's a place and time for everything and the internet is big enough for it all.