I quite liked Dennis' pub analogy.
The barmen are very patient, Caoimhín rarely brings out his club.
However, I think we can get a little too caught up in what the mores of this board should or shouldn't be.
Some of us have been around for a long time, and are easily recognisable. Others prefer to be anonymous, and some have gone on record as saying why - they felt that their comments were being interpreted by who they were assumed to be than by what they said.
I was originally against any form of registration, and am still wary of it. The one benefit I see is that no-one can post pretending to be me or another registered person, which is good, since it avoids destroying the trust/knowledge people have built up about who (they think) I am.
I'd caution against assuming you can use
www.arin.net to trace people - the few times I've tried the IP address has turned out to be one in a huge block owned by some mega ISP - and thus proves exactly nothing. Besides, who cares?
I think I know Dennis because we have interacted on the Internet for many years now. We have also met some of the same people in the big blue room.
If others choose to forgo that kind of identity, so what?
end of rant (for now)
