I was jsut curious, i've seen you ask little quesitons and stuff is many threads, but never fully participate, why?
Admin has to stay neutral or?
Just curious.

I'm a belt conveyer now?
wow u are getting creative with those names lol.

Over the years, me posting as me has led to a few problems here and there.

I will take some pretty opinionated views. Even some far-out views. Once in a while someone figures that since they're MY views they must be the views of the Cellar itself. And then they go away mad.

That's poison for an online community. So I just post as me on the Image of the Day section, and here; and in other sections, I post under a different name.

Which name, I'll never tell ;) because that would defeat the purpose. I love it when people have different points of view! Nobody should be afraid to say anything. There are a lot of people who have posted views 180 degrees different from mine, and we have met in person and been great friends. That's how it oughta be.

As far as "belt conveyor", that's one of my favorites!

Where's Tony?
 

I read about a guy who used writing samples to profile, and eventually identify, Tomothy McVeigh. If we ever really get that bored, we could probably pool together and study his stuff, and then determine, with some accuracy, who is Tony's alter ego. Also, one would assume that he'd be withing the first 25 or so people registered, which could severely narrow it down. After that, we just go through the samples and compare them to what The Good Mr. Shepps has already posted, and see what happens :-P.


Steve

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This is a signature bacterium. Please spray with a signature antibiotic.

I've already thought of that! I'm sure people could figure it out. But thinking about it now, even if they do, the pseudonym could still "work". Because the point is not to be anonymous to fool people, or to play with them, or to create something that doesn't exist, etc. The whole point is for people to feel free to argue with me.

And if they figure out they're arguing with my pseudonym, they'll know why I'm posting that way! And they'll be reminded of it every time.

The worst case was with cerebus's ex. She was a very vocal sort and we wound up having serious disagreements. Then after one thread she just seemed to get utterly pissed at me, and announced her departure. She wasn't leaving because of the disagreement, she was leaving because she couldn't stand being on a system where the owner felt that way.

And that's exactly what I didn't want to have happen. Even if someone hates me to the core, they could still enjoy using the system. It doesn't benefit me any for people to just come here and post. It's not like it makes any money or would ever make any money.

That whole event really bothered me. That was when, in the "old days", I "sold" the system to J.R. "Bob" Dobbs so that I could post as myself and enjoy it. But I think that, these days, people want to know if they start enjoying a site that it has a sort of plan and won't be dying on them prematurely. So I figured the easiest way would be for me to be honest about being the guy who runs it.

If you figure it out, that's really cool! And I'll keep using the alternate ID, and everyone will understand.

Actually, Tony, I think I may know who you are, but that's for another day. ;-)

On a semi-serious note, I had a somewhat similar situation with my mailing list, sycamoreland. (SHAMELESS PLUG--which can be found at http://www.yahoogroups.com ;-) ) I, being <A HREF="http://syc75.tripod.com/tmoney.html">who I am</a>, tend to enjoy opening my mouth...and sometimes putting my foot in it. For some reason, I got really pissed at someone who slammed another person on my list...and wound up killing the list within a few days. Lord knows why now...it was really silly.

But the point I'm trying to make is this. In the 4 months I've been on this version of the Cellar, we have all had a wide variety of opinions...yet we've all gotten along relatively well. This is perhaps the biggest reason that I enjoy posting here--because everyone seems to respect each other's opinions. Something you will RARELY find on phl.transportation or phl.media. (Not to mention, you all seem to be rather intelligent sorts, which is also sorely lacking on the ng's.) In the end, I think it just depends on the type of people you have on board. You'll surely get a few wary ones, but the good ones well outnumber them.

end babble...

tony and the atmosphere
 

<silently slips a $20 to sycamore> There's pleanty more where the information lies.

Also, though, syc's right about the general intelligence of the group here (enter ego). The beauty of this board is that it isn't very much advertised, and the one major place I can see it getting any publicity is slashdot, which is generally frequented by the more precocious, at least as far as computers are concerned. Not to mention that the general environment here is one of tolerance and discussion; basically where assholes are not accepted unless they can put up a good fight.

Steve

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I put up a good fight