Brian Atkins wrote:
>
> Doug Jones wrote:
> >
> > My reputation is valuable to me, but in order to build up a reputation, I
> > have to be (surprise surprise) reputable. Anonymous posters must fight an
> > uphill battle for this.
> >
>
> Sure sure, no question. But with the Freedom software for instance
> you can switch between your "identities" in an exceedingly easy
> manner. So when you want to flame someone, switch to your other
> nym and flame away without hurting the rep of your main nym. You
> can have your cake and eat it too.
Bogus identities, like any other lie, require effort to keep track of which
lies one has told. I'm too lazy for that, so telling the truth (at least as
I see it) and having just the one persona is much simpler.
If a seconday nym is used only for flamage, that nym will be discounted by
others as being a flaming twit. Once again, why should I bother?
An excellent role model (and genuine net personality, having contributed to
the creation of usenet itself) is Henry Spencer. He is so seldom wrong
that posters in sci.space.* crow about winning a metaphorical "I corrected
Henry Spencer" t-shirt. There have been less than twenty clear winners
over the last ten years.
-- Doug Jones Rocket Plumber, XCOR Aerospace http://www.xcor-aerospace.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:03:30 MDT