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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (59373)	9/21/2002 12:47:03 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

But on SI, anonymity can be perfect and absolute. Yes, it can. And posters can be total frauds whereas in a bar they can only be partial frauds. The operative word is "can." The folks on the "alias" side of this argument have often mentioned that posters can be frauds. But how many of them actually are and to what extent. That is also important in the calculation. I've rocked on my hobby horse a number of times hereabouts about how faulty is the perception of risk by people in general. Alar and apples, for example. We must recognize as we interact on SI that the possibility exists that we may be posting to a fraud, just as we must exercise care in downtown bars. How would you assess the probability of my actually being a man? Pretty close to zero, I'd say. The likelihood is that most posters here, at least those we've "known" for a long time, are more or less as they appear to be. I would, indeed, bet money that Neo is not a bigamist, to use E's example, and that X is not cheating on Cos. So, the possibility of a complete fraud exists. How do we deal with that uncertainty? Well, we don't give anyone here our SSN and Schwab password, for one. That would be risky to do in 3D, as well, just as eating an apple without washing it is ill advised. I know I've made this point before and I recall Neo making it, too. Just what is the risk of chatting with posters here as though they are what they appear to be? Duh, well, none. A little embarrassment, maybe, if the fraud is revealed and we feel foolish for being taken in. You can argue until the cows come home that the anonymity here permits a greater risk of fraud than in 3D, but so what? We don't live our lives around fear of small risks. We get in our cars every day. It is no less safe to proceed as though posters are what they appear to be than to drive to the supermarket.