jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net wrote:
>
>
> > More weird is this insistence on your interlocuters' having a stable
> > identity and a proper name. I can't figure out why this is so vital
> > in any forum, but especially in the disembodied world of the
> > Internet.
>
> Maybe you just answered your own question? Since this is already such an impersonal form of communication
> isn't that reason enough to want to personalize their communication as much as possible?
In general, I don't care whether people use pseudonyms or not, but even in the case of posters I pay attention (unlike AN), for reasons of rhetorical convenience in referring to them I would prefer that they give themselves a pseudonym that sounds like a name rather than like a bad allegory. I would prefer that Bitch, for example, invent herself a new ordinary first name -- Susy, Annabel, Prudence, I don't care, as long as it's a name a person might actually have.
Carrol