Please, folks, try to exhibit at least an ounce of creativity when choosing your pseudonym. Anything, and I mean anything is better than anonymous. Heck, anonymous1 or anonymous2 would be acceptable. Just as long as you come up with something that you and only you are using.

You are not required to divulge any personal information by using this message board. You don't even have to give us your first name! Make something up... We don't care! Just give us something that distinguishes you from other people in the same conversation.

Thank you for your consideration.

Regards,
Jonathan

While the occasional confusions in conversation can take a moment to sort out, the lack of identity may be more purposefull than simple laziness.

A consistent pseudonym builds a history and becomes an identity, which is the opposite of anonymity. In a world where name counts for far more than substance, being able to truly have no name creates a unique situation where comments can be evaluated only on their inherit merit, or lack thereof. Being unable to tell who said something is the most logical extension of the advice to "never believe everything you read on the internet". What's overlooked is that in the majority of cases it would also be sound advice to "never believe everything your dance teacher tells you simply because they are your teacher" - and deciding which case is which is another of those situations where there is no one you can reliably believe.

No information is worthy of belief simply because of who is saying it - everything is just a raw theory until substantiated by some more concrete evidence. Being able to present information, or theories, or opinions, in that context has more value in terms of building actual skills for the study of dance than doing so from a perspective of authority, even that of an authority built of nothing more than a reputational collected over a series of postings. It does not matter if an unclaimed post is initially believed or not - if it only plants the smallest suggestion of an alternate possibility, the reader's own future consideration of it can lead to a more informed position. Regardless if that decisions is to retaining the original view or accepting the new, the act of coming to a decision is a learning process.

Of course Jonathan can configure the board to require a name to be typed.

Anonymous. I find it most annoying the name anonymous. Half the time I'm not sure who I am answering. If there was only one anonymous, that would be fine, but there isn't. One more thing that needs to be looked at is , which dance are we talking about. Also it should be clear whether it is the man's steps or the ladies that is under question, and don't switch from one to the other in midstream without any warning.

The point of posting as anonymous is precisly that multiple people are doing so - there is no reputation attached to the posts, so they must stand on their own.

Anonymous. If I want to refer back to something from a week ago from Mr Smith I can. If he went under the name Anonymous it woud be very difficult. Any other person reading would not have a clue of "What its all about" so lets be Alfie. if you get the joke.

I agree with Jonathan, list your name. The chat room police wont charge you with a single crime. If you dont want to list your real name for whatever the reason, pick a pen name. Most authors do. Owen

Not if everyone is using the same pseudonym. In fact, just the opposite is true.A great argument for the ability to post anonymously, not for using the same name as everybody else. If everybody uses the same name, it's the same as if nobody used names at all. It doesn't produce an identity, it results in confusion, plain and simple.

Regards,
Jonathan

"'A consistent pseudonym builds a history and becomes an identity'

Not if everyone is using the same pseudonym. In fact, just the opposite is true."

Exactly why the only ways to have no identity are to use no name at all, use the same name as many others, or use a different name each time.

If I knew that my actions on the dance floor or any other interaction in a community was sufficiently annoying to others that they commented on it and requested I stop, I would make some changes in my behavior.

Why are we arguing?

Jerry

I doubt I'll ever exclude any specific names from being used (other than profanity). However, I will probably eventually change the system so that non-users cannot use the names of registered users as pseudonyms.

The purpose of this change will be to prevent the possibility of impersonation, however, one side-effect will be reduced occurrences of duplicate names amongst non-users, since the most common pseudonyms (such as "anonymous") will no doubt already be taken by registered users.

[Hint to our Anonymous friend: If the username anonymous hasn't already been taken, you may want to register it right now.]

Regards,
Jonathan