There doesn’t seem to be much of a problem with this here, but there are some boards where people censor their responses because people know them personally - where they live; who the important people are in their lives; where they work; etc.
Do you self-censor your posts?
The way I talk on message boards is pretty much how I talk in real life. I don’t curse all that often anyway, so no need to censor myself either way.
A good number of people here know me, where I live (generally) and who I work for. I do no censoring, and virtually no speel checking either!
No-one here knows me personally. If someone did I would be careful about what I say. I am a bastard who will talk about poeople’s faults behind their back (but will always finish with redeeming qualities. See my pit thread called ‘bloody colleagues’ or something like that)
I do sometimes worry that my workmates are secretly visiting these boards (as guests) and reading my posts.
There are certain things I’m more honest about here and bring up (i.e. crushes, etc.) that I wouldn’t normally talk about in real life. If certain people I knew posted here, I would avoid such topics.
I don’t know of anybody who reads this board for whom I’d censor myself. But my general rule for any public message board is that I don’t post anything that I couldn’t survive having my boss read. I kind of slipped on that with a recent jail thread, but even then, I think I could talk my way around the little that was revealed during that lapse of judgement.
And the above stated policy certainly doesn’t prevent me from stating my true beliefs and opinions.
Given that the man in my life is one I met through the boards, I obviously know at least one Doper personally, and the only way in which I censor my posts here is by not posting extremely personal information (about our sex life or what have you) without consulting him first to ensure that it’s something he doesn’t mind going public.
If, say, my parents were on the boards, I’d probably have to stop posting altogether… i’d go too paranoid.
Other than being a bit more open here than in everyday life, I post much like I talk and thus don’t worry about censoring myself.
I’m careful about names and book titles – my SO is a children’s writer and it could be an issue if a kid did a websearch and turned this place up. I’m similarly careful on my blog. It probably would not be all that hard to put the pieces together but I doubt anyone would bother.
I’m just a tad paranoid, that’s all.
Not much censorship for me. There is not much I believe, or said or have done, that I have ever felt I had cause to feel ashamed of. Some people might do me harm by reading my ideas and relaying them to others who might harm me, but it’s not a high-probability scenario, and the risks in such action are kinda two-way if I find out who did it, so I opt for freedom of expression.
No self-censorship here. I know quite a few Dopers from this area IRL (although I have regrettably been able to make any gatherings recently), and at least one coworker reads the boards and occasionally posts in gearhead threads over in GQ. Of course, I don’t censor myself in regular speech, either, aside from stopping a lot of really stupid jokes at the subvocalization level.
No, what I say here, is how I would talk to my friends. If they asked me the same questions, I would respond the same way.
You mean repeat your answer 3 times?
My experience with other boards (the Allman Brothers site, mainly) is that I do find it harder to insult people I actually know. But it works out OK because I haven’t met - and don’t want to meet - the people I find the most unbearable. Makes debates more civil, though. Granted, there’s less debate on that site than this one.
Well, it’s not self-censoring to please them, but I do watch things that I do say here, considering my husband and several of my closest friends do post here on the boards. I always think twice about writing things regarding them, mainly to protect their privacy.
If it’s something that could possibly be an uncomfortable subject, I’d broach in an email before posting about it. Common sense, really.
My experience is that I tend to view people totally separate from their online identity and when I meet someone in RL I am vastly surprised if they mention something I’ve written.
I know that my ex-roommate reads this board now and then - I don’t know whether she ever signed up for it. But that would probably make it easier to write about her, as I know she could refute what I wrote if she wanted to. Or complain about it to me personally.
Other than that, if things are real personal (regardless of my personal or someone else’s personal), I usually don’t write about them online as such things tend to creep back up and surprise you in the moment you least expect them to.
Yep, I’ve refrained from posting some opinions at times. That’s the only way I censor myself here, and I find it analogous to when you think better of saying something in person and keep your mouth shut instead.
I only refrain from saying certain things to avoid hurting Dopers I’ve come to know, not to hide my true views or project a differet image of myself. Sometimes, things don’t need to be said, IMO.
I do tend to watch what I post. As most of y’all know, I’m married to Airman Doors, USAF, and there are some threads I refrain from posting to on the basis that y’all really don’t need to know the intimate details of our marriage. That our marriage is so public makes it easy for rumors to circulate, and we all know about rumors and gossip.
Also, we both know a lot of Dopers IRL, and so I self-censor some things (or at least tone it down a bit) to avoid conflict and hard feelings down the road. Just like real life. 
Robin
I don’t censor myself, and it’s actually made me take a closer look at some of the things I do and say IRL. There are things I posted three years ago (holy motherguppy, three YEARS???) that I wouldn’t post today. Not because I would feel oogy or icky or because they were untrue…but because a lot of the things I do and feel have changed considerably since then.
There’s nothing I’ll say here that I wouldn’t say to anyone’s face, and vice-versa. There are a few people who think I’m either a moron or a bitch for things I’ve said on here…but I’m really good friends with “the newbie everyone wants to fuck,” so who’s to say, really? 
Oh, excuse me… Check here, halfway down the page - she was actually “The newbie with whom you’d most like to dance horizontally.” Maybe I was talking about a strange quadraplegic foxtrot…
Hamadryad is a smelly wenis. Does that answer your question? Amazingly enough, she and I have become fantastically great friends. I remember reading the pit thread spawned by that and going ‘Wow, how did this happen? And who is this mean cow?’ Later, I got to know the mean cow, and found out that she’s really a mean, smelly (badword)-face, and not at all cow-like.
I don’t post things about Weirddave’s and my sex life, out of respect for my him, and he does the same. Mostly everyone knows where we live, and tons of Dopers have been to our homes, and were present for our wedding. Fitting for a couple who met on the boards.