I'm with you on this Bantari. I use DrStraw for all go related activities. But I use a different name for all forums I belong to which relate to politics and economics (much more prolific than my go postings). And yet a third one for random accounts in other places. it just makes it easier for me to keep track of things. But, as you, I don't try to hide behind them.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

I feel this pseudonym business is becoming ridiculous and it baffles me why people get so shirty. Do you really want me to get into nitpicking? Pseudonym handle, tomahto tomayto, Padraig is not a full name, women can use initials, etc, etc. but that is all beside the point because I don't actually complain about people being anonymous, do I? I refer to them by their pseudonyms without sarcasm. To put it as simply as possible, even though it risks losing a few overtones: the most fundamental part of what I believe is that if you insist on using a pseudonym then you should forgo the right to make disobliging remarks. This does not means you have the right to be disobliging just because you use your real name, but if you do then you are at least in some way accountable and I can respect that. And it means that if you are anonymous and disobliging then I am not likely to have much respect for you. I honestly can't see why such a subjective, personal view can make anyone so prickly (but since it does I'm intrigued - is it an American thing?)

Whatever. The discussions about discussions have been going awry for a while now, and while good points have been made, they'll get lost if we stay on the treadmill.

You may recall that this whole thread and related posts developed because I mentioned that I was put off doing something on Direction of Play because of threadjacking. Slightly encouraged by some of the discussion, I decided to risk a break-out and to do a DoP piece after all, to see whether RJ has grasped anything of what others feel. In other words, he is tantamount to being on probation but not banned. That means no bombardments or repetitions, and no circumventions such as sister threads or kissing cousin threads.

If RJ feels he can't do that I would appreciate a sign now, before I do any work.

I have already sifted through a few DoP examples and what I found made me start. It turns out to be a rather more complex topic than I imagined, and correspondingly fascinating, with many implications for theory. So I look forward to a PROPER discussion even more than usual as my "reward" for the several hours it will take.

Not sure when it will appear as it's car servicing day tomorrow, I've got earache, and I really need to stop skipping the gym, but for stronger players at least I think it will be worth waiting for.

The corollary of this is of course that we should all perhaps lay off the discussion culture business until we see how the DoP post beds down.

John,

You seems to be missing a point. If I were to register an account in the name John Simpson and claim I live in Omaha, NE, who is to say that is really my name. It would not be, of course. But would anyone really know? The only people who can post here and be assured that they are who they say they are or those who are active in the community and fairly well know. It would also require that the real owner of the identity does not jump up and say "that's not me!".

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

I don't really think so, because I think the if the truth matters it will probably emerge in time. If you said you were John Simpson of Omaha AND started being abusive on L19, I suspect enough people, from Omaha and elsewhere, would try to track you down. Once it seems likely that you are not a real person, people like me would not respect you and so ignore you totally. But if you really were a Mr Simpson I might engage you in lust debate, avoid going to a tournament in Omaha, or whatever. My point being simply that the range of responses differ, but it's not a Salem witches thing.

BTW if there's a Simpsons allusion in there, pass. I don't like that programme so don't watch it.

Me neither. It went downhill fast after it stopped being a Tracy Ullman extra.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

John, you misunderstand me. I mean that there are many, many Padraigs online so the chance of you being able to generally register Padraig as a handle is almost nil. Boidhre on the other hand is the name of the son of a rather minor character from a not well known part of Irish myth, pretty much only known by scholars of this area. It's generally available.

How about you draw up a contract of expected behavior from all participants that must be signed to open the thread. You can also suggest talking points and questions people might want to ask. At the appropriate moment, you can signal when you want virtual thunderous applause. I think that would be very PROPER.

John, can I just say that I thought your post where you picked up references from Monty Python to Gone with the Wind really made my day, I smiled through about half of it (although possibly because you started with the dead parrot sketch and John Cleese read most of your post out loud in my head).

I picked my handle in, I can't remember, 1994, 1995? Something like that, when you couldn't even have spaces in usernames for the most part, and 8 characters was the limit where I first used it. Since then, I (possibly sadly) respond equally well to topaz and Graham, and that suits me fine. Firstly, it actually provides a context - if someone calls me Topaz, that gives me a strong idea they probably know me more online than offline, and vice versa - I also have the handle Fujiwara which serves the same purpose in different contexts.

There is also a positive to using handles. In military circles, it isn't that uncommon for individuals to be most people who know them as a nickname for a large part of their active service, the reason for the nickname often involving things personal which "don't get asked about". No one feels like they don't know who they're talking to just because they don't have their real name. Bearing in mind that I have never served so this doesn't fit my "generation" either (or in this case circle of friends / social circle / life etc), I just recognise that such behaviour exists and doesn't necessarily have the negative connotations of hiding. If I heard of a vet telling me how he had a great visit from "skippy" who he hadn't seen for 20 years, and the person recounts an event where this anonymous person applied a tourniquet to a gunshot wound and kept him awake for long enough for casevac to arrive, I'm not going to be thinking "wow, skippy couldn't share his real name, what a jerk!" - sometimes these handles become more your identity to the people that matter than your real name ever was.