Anonymity- should it be allowed ?

[Archive]

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.