Why do we want to be anonymous?

I know who all of you are!

Oh, somebody looking through my posts could find my real name, easily enough. I just use a handle that I’ve used for a long time, or at least a variation thereof. On this board, it’s just the shorter version of BobMonstre. Started out as a sometimes nickname in college, so a version of it was IRL before online.

SPOOFE is a right-wing name?

Gosh, how can one tell? (Unless your name is “Rush” or “Algore” or something.) :wink:

I’m with Ringo in that I try very hard to make sure everything I post is something I would be okay with my boss reading. Maybe not thrilled with my boss reading it, but essentially okay. Or my mother, but I take some risks with that because she isn’t very internet-savvy, and despite the fact that she probably wouldn’t want me telling some of my wackier “mom stories,” they are in fact true (yes, she does keep post-it notes on all her antiques so that we know how much to sell them for if she dies, even if said antique is a gravy boat that we are using for Thanksgiving dinner, the post-it note stays on it!) and she can’t deny them. Note to Mom if you are reading: if you don’t want me talking about you on the internet, take the damn post-it notes off the servingware!

I’ve met many people at Dopefests, exchanged emails using my email address that contains my first and last names, sent things in the mail, have received mail at work and at home, and participated in threads where I comment upon being named Elizabeth, and how I have given up being amazed when people assume they can call me Beth or Betty or whatever they feel is appropriate. So yeah, that information is definitely out there.

But I also like being delphica (always little “d,” because the first board where I used it didn’t allow for caps). At this point, it’s not an alter-ego, it’s really me. Hey, if random people can call me Betty, I think I can also use delphica as a nickname. I like the fun, nicknamey-ness of the concept. I’ve always said it reminds me of an old-time baseball team, where everyone has outlandish nicknames.

Look, my real name is Chief Justice William Rhenquist. I don’t use it on this board because I just want to be treated like everyone else.

Why did I pick my self to die on the deathpool thread, you ask? Well, I’ve haven’t been feeling well lately and (thunk)

I don’t care who here knows I’m Emanuel Levy because even when I post on a TMI thread I’m not concerned about who reads it. I know my friends don’t normally come here and I doubt my coworkers do either.

Among those who have posted in this thread, I seem to be the only one that has been recognized by another doper. In a post I gave the name of the college I attended and the town I lived in back at that time. There are less than 10 people from that town who have attended the same college and the other doper knows all of them.

My ID is a shortened version of my last name, that was naturally used by friends in HS and college. I show my location and if you can find it, I’ll guarantee that I’m the only person around these parts that spends any time on a message board.

For any detectives interested in identifying the other doper, he and I both posted in the following thread: What was your high school mascot? His is on page 2 and I’m on page 3.