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Caveat: Xman, I am assuming that the "you" in the post above pertains directly to me and to no one else. Perhaps this is moot, but that's based on the "^^^" in the previous post and what seems like a direct response to me.
If you think I were "irked" in the slightest by the anonymous feature, you should note that it's still an option. If I were bothered by it, even as a just a minor irritant, I'd turn it off. I see it's value, as I posted in my response to you. I just don't see it's value for folks with a large body of work here. People with a lot of posts here usually aren't going to be shy about asking embarrassing questions (with a certain subset - sexual - of those questions being carved back in).
I've already disclosed how often I've felt that I've had to take away a poster's anonymity. That's now public record (I'm too lazy to look to see if it was in this thread or the other). All three times were based on complaints generated by regular members. Only once was a username googled, and that was based on some potentially criminal activity.
Unless you're talking about googling new users after a questionable post. That happens all the time as an effective spam-fighting tool. If we find the same username up to the same behavior elsewhere, we ban them before they get a chance to try to game the system to post their links.
I have no interest in judging people who use this feature. Or those who misuse it, in my own opinion. If you feel the need to use it, that's fine by me. I may not understand why you want to use it, but I don't feel the need to go find out who you are. I have much better things to do with my time, as do Halx, Cynthetic and secretmethod70. I've said it before, but I guess it needs to be said again: either you trust us or you don't. If you think that asking a particular question will result in predetermined set of responses, I'm all for you experimenting with the results - not my thing, but unless you're up to no good, I don't care.
But again, perhaps this isn't all directed at me personally and is more of an indictment of those who don't like the feature. In which case: who the fuck cares what other people think of it? Just because some jerk on the internet thinks that you're gutless because you won't sign your name to a question about the flavor of water (or whatever), that doesn't make it so.
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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo
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