Anonymity- should it be allowed ?

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Posted By: jay behrens

As has been said by several people, if you are not willing to back up your criticisms with your real name, then you shouldn't be making them. True, it's easy enough to create a fake "real" name, but it wouldn't take long if they are a regualr contributor to figure out that the name is bogus. At that point, the person would lose all credibilty here. Given the resources and the deals that can be had on this board, I'm not sure that's worth the risk. At least to me anyway.

It's true that you need to use some caution when posting, but if you become overconcerned about some nut job that is going to Google you, hunt you down and rip you off or worse, then you better just unplug the computer, lock the doors and come out of the house only when needed.

Each person needs to assess what amount of exposure they are willing to make on the internet. If you are going to make accusations, then you had better be willing to make minimal amount of exposure on this board in order to maintain credibility.

This board's repuation is built on the fact that the contributors here are known entities and includes many of the top collectors and dealers in the country. If everyone was hiding behind screen names, this board wouldn't have the great repuation that it does.

Jay

I like to sit outside drink beer and yell at people. If I did this at home I would be arrested, so I go to baseball games and fit right in.

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Posted By: leon

My decision, which is about 5-6 posts up this thread, is made, at least for now.....I don't want to jeopardize losing contributors and I am going to act more swiftly on confrontational anonymous posts.....thanks for everyone's input.....If it becomes a major issue, which it hasn't yet, then I will do something different......moderator dude

edited to say that this really is not my personal wish but I am doing it for the benefit of the whole......as I personally think everyone SHOULD id themselves........

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Posted By: DJ

Jay,

I will play Devil's Advocote no longer Jay. Thanks for repeating your post and for being ever so helpful again.

DJ

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Posted By: Identify7

I think that anonymity should be required in this open forum do to reasonable security considerations. Certainly in an e-mail or chat room environment, concern is negligable. But this venue is open to (gee, I think its everybody in the world) - no, it is limited to persons who have access to a computer.

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Posted By: BcD

should not be able to post at all!




all right! maybe just the inane sayings at the bottom of his posts and e-mails!

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Posted By: jay behrens

Watch it. I'll start charging you for the advice I'm giving you free of charge.

Jay

I like to sit outside drink beer and yell at people. If I did this at home I would be arrested, so I go to baseball games and fit right in.

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Posted By: Tom Papa

I agree with most that as a general rule ...the real name of each poster should be accessable. At a minimum if the members cannot get that information Leon should be able to feed it to us if needed.

But speaking practically ...if you don't who the person is that makes the comment ...who cares what the hell their opinion is because opinions are only worth something if you respect the mouth it came out of.

Tom Papa