Why do people hide behind a screen name

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Posted By: Erland Stevens

I think screen names are a non-issue. T206Collector is a regular poster on the board. Whether his legal first name is T206 or not is irrelevant. When I see one of his posts, I know exactly who he is - a collector of T206 cards who seems to follow the spirit of the board, knows his cards well, and has strong, reasoned opinions on grading. I know these things because he consistently reflects these ideas in his frequent posts. In fact, despite using a screen name, he's such a regular poster that many (most?) forum members know his name anyway. The odds that T206Collector will spout off on something and randomly tell the board where to go are very low. He obviously enjoys the board as a resource and probably won't want to jeopardize his ability to use it.

It's people like me (very infrequent poster) who are a potential problem. Eventhough I use my real name, the board knows far less about me than T206Collector. I'm such an unknown that (almost) nobody knows whether I'm even using my real name. If I decide to strongly disagree with someone on a subject, nobody knows how to take it or how to respond. Nobody knows whether or not I respect anyone here or will even bother to check the board for replies. Even if I made a discovery of sorts (Old Judges were also sold with patries), somebody is going to (rightly) say, "Who are you and how do you know that?" Ted Z., Leon, and Barry Sloate would probably not get the same response - more like, "Cool Leon!"

So, I think knowing a poster has more to do with reading a number of that person's posts instead of using his (or her!) real name.