Well, my post is practically moot at this point, but I feel the principle is good to post anyways:
I don’t see much logic in someone famous using their real name and not being willing to prove it’s them. It’s just going to result in people thinking you’re pretending and produce animosity. If you want to be anonymous, use a pseudonym. And, if you want to public, then verify.
Without proof, it’s far, far more likely that it’s just someone using their name. As a board about fighting ignorance, being skeptical is important. We should be hesitant to believe things without proof, lest we increase ignorance rather than reduce it. There’s a reason why “Cite?” is our favorite catchword.
Unless/untill he provides proof, it makes sense to treat him like he’s not the real deal. Treat him like @Barack_Obama or similar. Don’t be rude or mean, but take everything he says with a massive grain of salt, maybe even with more skepticism than the average poster.
Thank you for graciously confirming your bona fides for those who were unconvinced. I’m sure you are not surprised to find this is a community of skeptics.
At least you didn’t join a message board where the primary question was, “Who is Neil Degrasse Tyson? And why should we care?”
Now. What’s happened here is, either you know more about me than you should, or I know more about you than I should. Or neither. Or somebody knows something about Billy Carter perhaps. I’d like it best if that remained a mystery!
I don’t think you can “follow” a poster here. The highest notification level for another user is “Normal”, which means you’re notified if they reply to you or mention you, that’s it. There are two lower notification levels, including “Ignore”, but nothing higher.
As for our pal Neil deGrasse Tyson, I’ll be convinced if his verified Twitter account mentions that there are dipsticks on the SDMB who don’t believe that @neiltyson is really NDT. Then I’ll profusely apologize. Until then, I remain unconvinced.
Maybe that’s just me.)