Okay everybody, help me out here.  I've been active with TER since October.  So, I am neither a total newbie, nor am I anywhere near an elder statesman of the community.  Yet, I find myself befuddled by something and am asking the group to help me understand this phenonmenom.

As I see it, people use alias for one of 4 main reaasons:
1) Humourous retort to someone else.
2) Sarcastic retort to someone else.
3) Flame someone else.
4) Ask a question or make a statement that one is afraid may/will offend others or alter the perception of others towards the statement maker and therefore possibly have negative repurcussions from providers/clients towards the statement maker.

I know that is not a comprehensive list, but it seems to have the main reasons.

So, when you are reading a post by an alias that links to or gives information that could be interepreted in numerous ways, is it unreasonable to have an initial knee-jerk reaction that the information or link provided is not done out of the poster's sense of altruism?

I ask this question because of the exchange a further down this thread.  Whoever it was (I can't remember the alias right now and don't want to lose my train of thought to look) attaches a link to a certain well-known providers comments on another board without any explanation.  When I read the attached thread, it left me wondering as to the motivation of the poster.  Forgive me for not realizing that we were being blessed with this FYI out of the goodness of the poster's heart.

My question (after the long-winded introduction) is this:  How is one supposed to react when one sees questionable material posted by an alias?  When you've had the opportunity to "get to know" others through their postings, you get a basic feel of what the person seems to be like.  With an alias, you're left with the info that they've posted with no background data.  How are you suposed to react???

-- Modified on 5/13/2005 11:23:34 AM

-- Modified on 5/13/2005 12:11:29 PM

I am skeptical of anything posted by someone using an Alias.

lawyer. I tend to be skeptical of the aliases and their posts.
Several months ago there was a proliferation of alias postings and it screwed up the NY Board in a big way.
Finally, Thirsty exerted control and the Board is back to being it's fun, informative and sexy self!

I usually try for humour mixed with sarcasm.  React by going with your instincts, they are usually right.

The P.O.D.

-- Modified on 5/13/2005 2:10:49 PM

-- Modified on 5/13/2005 2:12:28 PM

We have some sinners on Aisle 6

C'mon Max, I make sense occassionally!

Bacca, I see your point.  However I must admit that I sometimes use and alias.  The reason I do so (other than just for humor's sake) is I've vested several years in this handle and if I'm going to post something that may offend someone, I rather not have my mailbox filled up with hate mail.   So your #4 may apply here.  Also, there may be some posts some members might not want other members or providers to know came from them.  This is just a hypothetical but suppose a client sees a certain provider regularly and they also know each other through the board.  Now suppose this provider sometimes has bad breath.  What if the client were to post on the board something like, "How do I hint to a provider that she should use mouthwash?"  The client may not want to offend the provider who is a good provider other than occasional bad breath so he would post using an alias.   I think that would be acceptable.

Now after thinking about this, I've decided I will not post under an alias anymore unless it's for humor purposes or if it gives any identifiable info about me.  I think a post would be better received  if the reader can see it's from a 3 year member with nearly 40 informative reviews than from a mystery man.  

I'm going to be less bashful and post much more as myself.  I hope others do as well.

One last thing, don't think that I'm some big coward who hits and runs with alias posts.  The posts I've recieved the most flack and arguments from were made from my original handle.  Usually the alias were used for iso posts of midgets and NY Yankee bashing.

Sometimes people like to poke a little fun and not suffer the consequenses when others don't get it.

I've been known to tell a clunker or two under my real ID and get called for it.

that's not a way to make friends on this board.  However, the iso midgets thing . . . who doesn't want a good midget every now and then  

Don't react at all. People post under an alias to get a reaction from the board. Whenever they do it, they get what they want. If we all just ignored the alias posts, they would probably stop doing it(or at least cut it down alot).