I don't have a problem with anyone that is anonymous on the Internet. I imagine 75% of all forum members on the Internet are anonymous to some degree.
Here, we seem to be a pretty tight knit group, that don't seem to care so much with people knowing who they are. You have to remember, there are a lot of kooks out there on the Internet. Years ago, the forums I frequented, we had flame wars all the time. Ugly ones, that if someone knew who you were, they might want to track you down and beat the crap out of you or worse. Or make it easier to hack into your computer, or get real life info and destroy you that way.
It's important to remember that anything you post, is probably preserved for decades on the internet. This can be very useful in tracking down people that are anonymous. They may use their real email address or names in certain places on the Internet. When you can tie the two together, you got something.
As far as OldSchool goes.... he/she probably finds it easier to be brutally honest by remaining anonymous. Think about it. If you could share your true feelings about people at your job, you can't do it with people that work with you, a person you trust, could tell someone they trust and next thing you know, you calling the boss a assh*le has now got back to the boss. You can't go on Facebook or forums and say that stuff either. Someone could read it and next thing you know, someone's emailed a link to you saying that and sent it to your boss. That could result in a uncomfortable workplace
Same thing goes with your friends. I can't be brutally honest about how I feel about my friends to their face or make a hurtful comment about a friend of my friend. People, for the most part, cannot handle brutal honesty. They are hurt by it or harbor resentment. You usually have to construct your comment to make it less hurtful, beat around the bush some, water it down.
I, am a person that tells it the way I feel, and I get screwed over alot because of that. I"m learning to be more mellow and sensitive. (insert violins)
Dennis has my respect, because he tells it the way it is. Even if your his friend or you know him well, he will still tell it the way he feels, I believe. I havent' ever got to meet him, but have spoken to him, read all his posts for the last couple of years and have had some personal dealings with him, that have told me a lot about what kind of person he is. And he's a stand up guy, that would probably make anyone a good friend.
You just have to be the type that understands that. If I posted something and was way out of line in Dennis's eyes, I believe he would follow up and tell me exactly that. If he felt I was being a jerk, I don't think he would say things like..."You might have been a little harsh" or "You could have phrased it better".... I think he might say... "You were just being a jerk about it" And I shouldn't be all bent out of shape because of it, I should just understand that's his opinion and I'm not going to lose his friendship over it.. just because he called me a jerk
Now, I'm just trying to get a point across... I"m sure he would find a way to tell the truth, but not come on too harsh, but also not sugar coat it.
When your anonymous, you can tell it the way it it without any repercussions. That could be a bad thing or a good thing. There are many ways that someone could abuse that and do it for the wrong reasons. If someone was to do it, just to maybe open some people's eyes, then that might be a valid reason.
Jury's still out for OldSchool, at least for me. He doesn't appear, so far, to be just a vindictive dude trying to seek revenge on people he doesn't like. To me, he seems like he's trying to open up some people's eyes or at least make them think a little more by offering what he believes to be true statements, that may not be popular.
He also isn't coming on here every month or so to just stir up crap and then leave. Then again, I don't know alot of the back stories here, so who knows whether I'm way off base.
