On 14/2/07 20:41, "Tothwolf" <tothwolf at concentric.net> wrote: I've been 'witchy' or 'witchfinder' since about that time too, I mean you never used your real name on USENET did you :) -- Adrian/Witchy Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer collection?

Brad Parker wrote: "back in the day" when most of us plebes were usually not allowed anywhere near a Usenet account, most of us used BBSes and commercial online systems like CIS. True names were the rule on Fidonet and most TI-99 BBeses, although I'm, um, aware of exceptions, and CIS didn't have handles per se. I used my, um, billing name there, on Delphi, Genie, etc. The Commodore and Amiga BBSes were another story. It was more like handles were required. Maybe that was just the local scene, which was also heavy into CB radio. There were board-sponsored offline meets, and everyone met IRL eventually, so it got to be a big game figuring out all the True Names. Until I ran into that scene, the online world seemed like a more trusting place, though. There was only a small percentage of people who even went online, and it was a far less heterogenous mix. Basically either engineers or creative types. Some people got a lot more open than they would say at your average cocktail party, and certainly than at a board meeting. I recall about 10-15 years ago some of the rising dot-commers who found themselves climbing various corporate ladders and such started going back and redacting their posts on the W.E.L.L., various MUDS/MUCS, etc. Myself, aside from occasionally stumbling innocently into the crossfire of various politically-motivated scenario-painters, I don't recall ever posting anything embarrassing enough to warrant that degree of retroactive privacy protection, much less anything to "hide" but I do like to keep my online persona distinct from my real life, such as it is. It's just much less hassle, and I do not like the idea of some crew of coders-for-hire in Hyderabad or somewhere rummaging through my online activities trying to pick my brains, or some quack consultant hired by bumbling cops at the DOJ or Homeland Insecurity datamining and profiling me. Whether the latter realize they are destroying what they claim to want to protect or not, RealID should be seen as the insult and menace to individual sovereignty that it is, by many more than at present. Any amount of terrorists would not be as bad as the new Reich being built. There, somebody invoke Godwin and declare this thread dead, because restraint just suddenly sprang up and ran off somewhere from here :-) jbdigriz