I simply ask people who they are and what do I get? Somebody informing me that I have no right to ask and a few others telling me that they are under no obligation to answer my question.

Well, the truth is you do have a right to ask, but it's also true that nobody is obligated to answer. Some people simply value their privacy more than others. Personally, I respect other's right to privacy.

Well, the truth is you do have a right to ask, but it's also true that nobody is obligated to answer.

Yes, but why is telling me that more important than answering my question?

If people don't want to tell me who they are, why find excuses? Why not remain quiet? What's the point of telling me that there is no rule forcing them to answer? Why tell me that I have no right to ask?

What's wrong with you people?

When somebody asks me something on the street (or anywhere!) I do not tell them they have no right to ask; I do not tell them that I am not obligated to answer; I do not inform them about my pet theories of how much one should tell others and why; I do not involve them in a lengthy discussion about freedom of information versus privacy, I simply answer their question or decline and walk away.

That is what I have always considered the normal practive among human beings. What I have seen here is frightening.

Some people seem to be obsessed with rules and rights, but not for real or imagined reasons (like someone who fears a real or false danger) but simply because they can be. But they are not climbing mountains, if you get the analogy.

And that is plain weird. It's the weirdest thing that has happened to me for some time. And my life is pretty weird to begin with.

I am genuinely shocked.

Well, if that shocks you well... then that shocks you.

Well... here is something to consider. Communication is only about 25% of the words that we actually use. The rest comes about with gesture, facial expression and intonation.

Me answering these personal questions on the street to a stranger would have a lot to do with that 75% that can not be transmitted on the internet.

Considering that I am not going to get that 75% from anyone on the internet (and I'm not going to get into web-cam) then sorry... just don't have enough info... to get more personal than I do.

I don't see it as a rule or a right... just the way that I communicate with people. Call it a comfort zone. Some people like talking about their prostate surgery with the stranger sitting next to them on the plane. Some people prefer to read their book or answer just the basics.

Sure, people can use the anonymity of the internet to be an ass... once proven then, as you said, do the internet equivalent of walking away.

Why on earth you would consider interaction on the internet to be normal communicative interaction between people is shocking to me. But then, that's my comfort zone talking.

Why on earth you would consider interaction on the internet to be normal communicative interaction between people is shocking to me. But then, that's my comfort zone talking.

I wouldn't walk up to a stranger I see talking somewhere to inform him that I believe he has no right to ask the question he asked and that I am under no obligation to answer.

Yet, several posters here have done the Internet equivalent of that.

If there is a comfort zone involved, why doesn't that keep people from doing that?

Also, and I cannot even begin to tell you just how happy I am about that, telling people you talk to who you are is not the same as informing them about intimate health problens and surgery related to it.

And to me ANY communication is normal communicative interaction. Heck, I am friends with many people I have never met outside the Internet or Usenet. Talking to people from all over the world on the net is simply not as different from talking to people in person. Before the commercialisation of the Internet, the majority of Internet users used their real names; so please don't tell me that not doing so is a normal reaction to a completely different medium or world. It's not.

Well, at the end about half the people have told me what I wanted to know (or enough of it).

And one half has informed me that I must not ask them and/or that they won't tell me (and that that is completely normal).

I am glad to learn more about people I believe I know. And I am surprised to learn that there are people who take an active interest in telling me that I must not know more about them. (If they hadn't told me, I would know less about them!)

well, as long as your satisfied with your social experiment

It wasn't one at the beginning.

It is a strange world in which asking those you have interacted with for longer than a year who they are becomes an "experiment".

Gideon Macleish is my pen name. I prefer to use it for everything that I put in print in political writing, and for any eventual lecturing I might do in political arenas.

As for my real name, well, I'll be "unmasked" soon enough (announcement coming next week--after filing deadlines are past!). I'll have to have you wait in suspense for a tad longer, Andrew (lol). But "Gideon" is pretty much my preferred name (it's the name I chose; the other was chosen for me).

I live in Lefors, Texas, and can't upload a pic, as this is the library's computer.

Very good, Gideon. I knew it was a pen name. But from your writings I always had a good idea of who you were person-wise.

Coming in late as usual.

My name is Tonya, um one of the reasons I don't give my last name is because of my kids. The second is because my husband forbid it because giving an opinion with my full name has come back to bite us before.....long story.

I live in a suburb of Dayton Ohio at present. I stay at home with my kids right now and try to fill the void when their daddy is gone on business, which is a lot.

I love to read and write but never seem to have adequate time for both. My kids are busy with their activities and I am constantly on the go with those.

I have done the Air Force, been a tv news journalist, a commercial producer, radio personality, newspaper editor/photographer, off and on actress (theater of course..hehe), board member of international organization, aerobics instructor, worked in law enforcement for awhile, and that's all I can think of off the top of my head.

I am usually an active member in my church (Protestant) and attend women's Bible studies or retreats. I say usually because we moved here over the summer and haven't found a church home yet. I like to play acoustic guitar and write my own music (Christian music) mostly because I am not very good playing other people's stuff.

I've lived in Ohio, Kentucky, Colorado, Texas, Mississippi, Florida, Delaware, North Dakota, Japan, Philippines, Alaska and have traveled to many other parts of the world sometimes staying months at a time, though it was not my official home.

I am in real life who I am on JU, except on JU I am a bit more reserved. I don't have the time to take on subjects here I will generally tackle in real life...face to face. I know people here use the time factor as a cop out, but its not a cop out for me, its fact.

I have made some bad decisions in my life and I don't mind sharing them or any thing for that matter. I can't think of anything from my past I did or that has happened to me that carries any emotional weight with it.....I can honestly thank God for releasing me from that baggage many years ago.

I would write more, but guess what? Real life calls and I must play Taxi driver for my youngest!

Have a great day!

Oh and this is me on my back porch with my son last winter but I cut him out....
Link

Tova, that's funny, I thought you were Jewish (mostly because of the name "Tova", it means good (female)).

But it's good to hear that you would usually be an active member of a church. I myself enjoy what our community has to offer and am very thankful for those who work to make things happen. (I really don't have the time to do much myself!)

I thought you were Jewish

That doesn't surprise me. I have a real heart for the Jewish nation.

My youngest son's middle name is Tobias...Hebrew meaning "God is good." I just picked the female version of it for my JU name and the number God uses for complete.

In the fiction stories I write, the characters names are ALWAYS significant and will often give insight into the character before his or her actions do. Most are Hebrew and Gaelic.....

Just another caveat!

'I believe that this is what Furry Canary was trying to say, but I agree he was unceccesarily snotty about it.'

Thanks LW. Yes, I was simply suggesting that someone's reasons for maintaining anonymity are not necessarily poor just because Andrew J. Brehm deems it so. He goes on to say 'It is however very doubtful that a full 90% of JoeUser posters have such reasons. I believe most are just not very personable.' I assume he has reliable sources for his stats, and they are not just plucked out of thin air.

So, is my point really so snotty? It wasn't intended as such. And I certainly never suggested that 'I believe he [AJB] has no right to ask the question he asked', nor did I ever tell him 'THAT IT ISN'T OK FOR ME TO DO THAT IN MY OWN BLOG' as he has said subsequently, with - I would suggest - significantly more snottiness.

'I doubt if many could even tell ya whether FC is male or female. I know I cant.'
I'm a boy! (As the Who once said.) And you knew that LW! But maybe you forgot. (It caused a bit of a laugh before when one of the Doctors began to defend my feminine honour against abuse from a third party until I put him right.)

'So go away!'
No. Blacklist me if you must, AJB. Alternatively, you go away - and sign up for a blog site that demands full disclosure from all participants. I'm quite happy here, and I have broken none of the rules of the place.

Well... here is something to consider. Communication is only about 25% of the words that we actually use. The rest comes about with gesture, facial expression and intonation.

That is a good point.

But I don't see how limiting the flow of information can help here.

If I know more about somebody I talk to, I get certainly more communication, don't I? Like when I have an idea of somebody's background, perhaps know what they look like, get an idea of what their accent might be like... that's all part of the 75% you mention. I considered exactly that (but didn't have any numbers). That's why I asked the question.

For example, people know I live in Ireland. This gives you some information you can use to decipher what I say. When I say "public school accent", do I mean an upper-class accent or a lower-class accent? My background gives you an answer. (A "public school accent" is an upper-class accent.) There's some of the 75% you need to communicate better.

People know that I have also lived in Germany. You can use this knowledge (which is, again, part of the 75%) to deduce that when I talk about the continent, I might talk from experience as well as encyclopedic facts. Again, it helps us to communicate.

I assume he has reliable sources for his stats, and they are not just plucked out of thin air.

No. I don't have reliable sources for my stats about something I consider doubtful.

As for blog sites that demand full disclosure, I don't see the connection between asking people who they are and demanding full disclosure. I really don't.

I live in a suburb of Dayton Ohio at present.

Xenia? (Went to UD, so I know the place well - from 30 years ago!)

In the fiction stories I write, the characters names are ALWAYS significant and will often give insight into the character before his or her actions do. Most are Hebrew and Gaelic.....

Excellent idea. Gaelic is of course at home with me. I don't speak Irish, but I read it a lot (on street signs).

Well, that closes the circle, I suppose. You thought I was a girl (remember?) and I thought you were Jewish. Reminds me of the priest/rabbi-dagger/sword joke (from Men in Tights).

Xenia? (Went to UD, so I know the place well - from 30 years ago!)

BITE your tongue. Xenia has really gone down hill and it pretty slummy now....

We live in Beavercreek, but you may not know it Doc because it is only 25 years old. It's very pretty and really green.

You thought I was a girl (remember?) and I thought you were Jewish. Reminds me of the priest/rabbi-dagger/sword joke (from Man in Tights).

Yeah, the things we suppose about people....lol

Well... here is something to consider. Communication is only about 25% of the words that we actually use. The rest comes about with gesture, facial expression and intonation. That is a good point. But I don't see how limiting the flow of information can help here.

I'm all for limiting the information flow. My information or anyone elses is not now nor will it ever be pertinent to our conversations here. And as such is not needed. Info like that I will give to my friends but that's it. Can you show me one instance where the info you're talking about would be required to carry on a conversation/arguement on JU?

I'm late to the party, but....

My name is Karen, I'm in my mid thirties, and I'm married to an Air Force Police officer. We have 3 kids, aged 13, 11 and 9, and we live on a military installation in Illinois.

I knit - I sold something that I made for the first time last week - and I write (Hoping to get published one day). I'm a Notary Public, and in the past have worked for vaious attorney's doing all kinds of stuff, from wills to converyancing to litigation to criminal prosecutions. I recently discovered Gnosticism and am finding a lot of satisfaction in it's teachings. I'm getting ready to start a transcriptionists class next month, and I'm also going to start volunteering at a local hospice. I have a crazy daschshund and a odd-eyed cat, I do yoga as often as I can....oh, and I'm semi-disabled after a car accident and subsequent surgery left me with some neuropathy that will probably never go away. Oh, and I'm British by birth.
That's all I cna think of right now....apart from the red hair, that is.

Nice to meet you, Karen.

Sometimes we just click on the wrong button. I do not wish to remain anonymous---I have too many joeuser friends to catch up with!

gee somehow I mised this article. but here goes, I am a 6 foot 2 inch Jew with a mean streak, I live in Rio Vista ca. retired now and ill from hep c, I waas a democrat for 38 years now a republican, married to the single finest female on GODS green earth. I live in my own home, not the banks but ours, lock stock and barrel. I have 2 cats simon and buffy the moth slayer

To me the names aren't as important as the people I've gotten to know in my year here at JU. The names mean so little to me that I rarely notice when someone changes their nickname. It took me awhile to realize that you and Leauki were the same person.

It's not that I don't care that there is an actual person behind the nickname. It's just that, here at JU anyway, if you want people to know who you are, you write articles and respond to others articles. Pretty soon even the slowest of us start catching on to what you're all about.

As for "anonymous users", to me there are 3 kinds. People who have blogs at other blogsites who come in to our blogs because of BlogExplosion and other promotional sites. To me, these people come as invited (directly or indirectly) guests. They usually don't venture too far away from the blog that brought them here, but once in awhile they do. Either way, I figure since I invited them to my blog (by way of my promoting it), they are almost always welcome.

Next is what I call the "Sniper". These are people who don't bother with their own blog, they merely lurk in the shadows and take pot shots in other people's blogs. Some are registered at JU and some aren't. While I don't bother blacklisting them, I really don't welcome them to my blog either. When they do take their innane potshots at me in my own blog, I often use my right to just delete them out, as I would an interloper into my own home.

The last is definitely the worst. These are people who are truly "anonymous" trolls. They don't bother registering or having a blog of their own (at any blogsite). They merely troll the waters, making completely ignorant comments and continuously change their "anonymous" name, as if the name of slime mattered. ;~D