P.A. (Posters Anonymous) - name, rank and serial number (Jul/20/2007 )

How do you guys feel about anonymous web postings? Under the cloak of anonymity, would people tend to cross barriers they normally wouldn’t if they have to identify themselves? Would we be more honest or less inhibited in expressing our thoughts or opinions?Or on the contrary, are we more cautious or prudent since as in any written word once we post something, we’d have a far greater audience and there’d be no chance for retrieval?

With the internet culture, do we have more opportunity to abuse our freedom of speech/expression? Don't you find people who properly identified themselves more credible than those with aliases? Or is the virtual world another alternate reality for us and we'd like to keep it that way?

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well i think that for some comments on tough questions, people may be more honnest if it's anonymous. But the bad face of this is that too rude comments may come.
Anonymous posters are also people who care about statistics abuses and just don't want to throw their names all over the internet...
For instance, i prefer being declared, because i live in democracy (hope that gonna continue well) and i assume my ideas.

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I think the answer is ‘it depends’. All the above happens. Truth, lie or exaggerate. It would depend on what is being said, where it is being said and quite likely who is saying it. Much like real life.



Yes and no. One thing to remember is that anyone can speak on the Internet but it doesn’t mean that anyone will listen to you. The Internet, to me, is not so much a place where people can abuse the freedom of speech, but rather a place where people of similar views can find each other and gather together. A racist will not convert anyone on the Internet, (most people on the net won’t be same race anyway), what said racist can do by shouting out into the Net is to attract other racist who shares his view. I think these people would have found each other given time, but by having their though floating on the Net, other people can find out what they think. Thus all the fuss in the news.



No. It is not possible to verify any information that one may provide as credentials. A situation much like real life. If somebody introduced themselves as a chemical engineer or a company CEO at a gather, how would you verify his credentials. In fact, one would just listern to that person talk, and determine if he really knew his stuff, or was simply pretending.

Even with an alias there is the matter of one’s reputation. Your name is what your parents want to call you, while your alias is what you wanted to call yourself. Name or alias, both serve as a unique identifier of an individual.



Not an alternative reality, merely a different part of reality. A small little bit of the world, where skill and knowledge makes the land a little more flat. Where commoners can stand a little more even with kings. Where the grip of the powers that be is just a little less tight or absolute. It won't last, but we should try to keep it going as long as possible

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Hey pernesebleu,

If someone’s having trouble with ligation and asks this forum, do you think s/he would find cassandra’s recommendations more credible than Fred’s or yours for that matter ? In technical forums such as PO wouldn’t you rather have people disclosing something relevant about themselves which could eventually help those soliciting advice make informed decisions afterwards?

However I would agree that in a discussion/debate forum, assuming an anonymous stance could provide the extra kick… one could post something “unpopular” without fear of reprisals (like spraying graffiti then running like hell) but on the extreme, this could easily lead to incivility, offensiveness and even libel which is already becoming an issue nowadays.

If we know the gender, nationality, educational background, politics etc of the person posting, do we respond by automatically shifting gears, or putting up filters based on our preconceived (stereotypical) notions? And even after one discloses him/herself, would we still naturally assume that it is not a person posting but rather the persona (perhaps one of many) s/he would like to present at that particular time and space?

This smacks of sceptism or is it cynicism? In my own warped (naïve) thinking, if a person says he’s a chemical engineer, I have no reason to think that he is lying because why would he? If he wants to dig a hole for himself, let him dig it. If he thinks it’s a challenge to see how and for how long he could get away with it, allow him to find out. If anything it adds more to the dynamics of the forums .

It’s probably very juvenile, but don’t ya think it’s kinda fun (or perverse) to make assumptions and speculations about the people in the forums we participate in? Since some are so stingy in giving out personal details (not even their gender), sometimes we have no choice but to fill in the blanks (and this just shows that some of us have no life!!! )And all this just because I want to start a speculation (HOT/COLD) game. Should we start off with Bioforum?

I think he's a 30 to 60 yr-old male, a computer geek but initially trained as a whatchamacallit engineer, most probably asian north american (avatar- obese panda), married with 4 to 5 kids may be even grandkids (if he's 60), idle or rich that's why he has the time or the resources to start this forum and since he's idle and/or rich, he's a true believer of capitalism....

What say you, Bioforum? HOT, COLD or LIBEL???

untraceable,

casandra

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Is it allowed to speculate about our virtual forum deity? I think it is a typical women characteristic to do this.


Casandra you would be the clown in this situation.

The advantage of forums like this is that you can estimate the knowledge of the others after some time and you have sufficient members who can correct if there are erroneous or even fake answers (which are as I assume extremly rare in this forum) or discuss this. But this is attributed to the quite specific topics (and the idealism of the members?) of this forum, in other forums/unkown web ressources I'm more cautious about answers or any text (even with wikipedia I'm now relatively cautious as there is much trash inside). Luckily biologists are honest and polite people .

But strictly speaking you are normally not anonymous in the web, you leave so many marks when surfing in the web, a web expert, the police and in particualr google can find out your identity (and your characteristics and preferences) if necessary. Therfore I would be careful when abusing others, crossing barriers or being too prudent. And also to give too many marks on your identity, sometimes proxies are necessary Although data protection/privacy became antiquated in the web, it should be looked after more carefully.

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Deity? Are we talking about the one and the same obese Panda? C’mon hobglobin, I’m with pernesebleu on kings and commoners having equal imaginary footing in the virtual world, besides, it was just a gentle cyber chain-yanking (unsuccessful at that ) and BTW where are the other women speculating here, most are on holidays? <bulb lights up in head> But hey, since you’re back, may be we can start off with you?

Your display name…let me guess…you’re a bad speller so you couldn’t spell hemoglobin or is it hobgoblin correctly, right? Even as a child, you were extremely curious, adventurous, brave and accident-prone so your Mom’s favorite phrase (the one she’d tell herself or your Dad and got imprinted in your mind) was “don’t panic” like the time when she was resuscitating you after you poked a naked wire into an electrical outlet … your cute curly hair was never the same again (not to mention your cute little brain cells).

School was probably tough because you’re one of those smart kids teachers love to love and bullies love to beat up. I bet you’re a member of all those “brainy” clubs (chess, science, computer…) may be even editor of the school paper. And on your senior year (or whatever ‘s the german equivalent) you fell in love with an epitome of beauty and elegance but as fate has willed it, she dumped you for the school jock or was it the guy who drove a sportscar (la deesse)? Ahh..that explains a lot…

Since you’re so retro, you probably wished you were born in the fifties - a hippy with long hair, flair pants, beads and tattoos and if you’re not imagining this, you’re most likely watching TV…. all those slasher/splatter movies, weird sci-fi programs, Japanese anime. In your free time you’re either working or ranting ironically against a god you don’t believe exist. As for politics hmmm…retro, hippy, critters that will inherit the earth hence the ultimate equalisers, I’d say you’d be leaning left (but I could be 0.1 % wrong). Did I hit gold?

your clown,

casandra

PS
Why can't I be a chancellor better yet a vicereine...how about the reine herself?

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