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On Sat, 15 Jul 2000 11:43:20 +0100 "David Kennedy" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >> More seriously, can somebody please explain why some people think >> it's 'all right' to adopt false identities in cyberspace? Why don't >> people want to function as themselves? It makes no sense in the 'real >> world' so why do it here? And in the context of employment, tax, >> bills etc it'd be regarded as fraud or dishonesty wouldn't it? Or >> perhaps these people have got multiple passports and bank accounts... there are many reasons for adopting personae and i've come across lots of interesting examples. i know people who use personae to discover or explore aspects of themselves, or to experience life outside their allotted "subclass" [like women who wish to be taken seriously and avoid abuse, etc. one woman i know resorted to a "genderless persona" and was amazed by the total absence of backchannel hassle from the male members of lists to which she posted]. i know people who do it to avoid stalking and others who do it because they find a greater ease of social interaction online than they do offline and wish to leave behind the inertia of offline selves. there are also those who have things to say which certain others would rather were not said. lots of people have very restrictive employment contracts these days. also, given that on poetry lists a lot of the members are publishers, editors, reviewers, pals, etc, then speaking out could be considered quite foolhardy for some. i like to see personae on lists because they can resist the consensi which tend to dominate and oppress minorities. personae can be used for mischief of course, and i don't condone such use, but personae are not the only listfolk who behave badly, by any means. and if any persona user breaks the law they are as accountable as anyone else - in that sense true anonymity is difficult to achieve. hotmail is just a convenient free [webmail] service - there are many other services [including countless free accounts, and not to mention the "lifetime email address" type of service which offer numerous different email address formats]. thus to ban hotmail addresses would simply make it more difficult to identify personae and lead eventually to a long list of banned domains, a list which needed to be updated constantly [like virus software]. things get even sillier further down this road. >> Perhaps, in the context of Roddy's original post, people with >> hotmail accounts shouldn't be allowed to join. These fakers always >> seem to have them, don't they? why must we always look for ways to exclude? we are all free to filter the cyberstream according to our own sensibilities. all i know of you is what i see on my screen - your "persona". you'd laugh if you saw yourself as i see you. [or maybe you wouldn't.] regards steve --------------------- http://www.fluoro.org %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%