On Sun, 18 Dec 2005 23:02:23 +1100, "Phil Allison"
wrote:


"dave weil


The way that people who use their real names have those very real
names abused for sport is reason enough to keep an alias (and yes,
this applies to Arnold Krueger as well).



** Never heard the old saying about " Sticks and Stones ..... " - Dave
???

Yes I have. And yet, that expression relates mostly to one on one type
confrontations.

My being dubbed Phyllistine , Phyllus, Philthy, Assillon and many equally
creative variants thereon is cause for no more than mild amusement.

And that's fine.
However, the practise of using an alias on usenet is associated with
nothing but pure evil.

It depends on how it's used. I don't see this particular person as
being particularly evil.

Like some vacuous fop at a fancy dress party, an alias hides and protects
the user from all responsibility and liability for their public crimes. The
urge to sin aplenty is irresistible to most.

Do you really think that this person has committed "crimes"? Really?

Once again, you might find associating someone's name with pedophilia
in a public forum "mild amusement". I don't, just for an example. So
is it any wonder why someone might not want their name easily
associated with traits that they don't have anything to do with,
simply because they want to hold a person up to ridicule. It's a
dragon eating its tail anyway.


An alias user can have many identities, switching between them at whim -
conducting one person conversations and even creating one person whole
threads.

Yes, and they especially relish going after "real people". So is it
any wonder that more and more "real people" use a reasonable defense
against this practice?

The simple fact is that public anonymity combined with the ability to self
publish ANYTHING you like constitutes an implied licence to release one's
long suppressed " monsters from the id " .

Against "real people".

And dear folks, here they all are, hordes of ugly monsters running around
like mad creating endless havoc on usenet.

I don't disagree. I'm simply saying why I see people attampting to
shield themselves from "the monsters", as you put it.

shrug