Since none of us using our TER handle is using his real name--my name is not Kornlover, for instance--we are using aliases all the time.   But it is a way for people to post without being identified by others who use these boards.   Sometimes, and in my opinion too often, the alias is abused by allowing posters to flame others without idenitifying themselves.   Attempts to use a name similar to someone else's handle or alias as an alias is obviously an abuse.  In this case I, and I suspect others, were misled as to the source of the first post--and i even wondered why such a well=known poster would have sent in a test.