Subject: Knowing a Who's'wa'who... It's Deja Who All Over Again From: ddern@world.std.com (Daniel P Dern) Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 13:50:33 -0400

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-----------> This message was posted to the ONLINE-NEWS list. <-----------

"Vin Crosbie"  said:

> I don't give a damn if the identity of an Online News poster is an inmate of
> a mental asylum, a 4-year old child, or the president of the United States
> writing under a pseudonym. I judge a person by his ideas, not according to
> his job title or identity.
> 
> You state that credibility can be given only to people who openly identify
> themselves and their associations....

YMMV, but I beg to differ; while there may be cases where identity of the
speaker is irrelevant, there certainly are many where that isn't true.
E.g, if I said:
    "Windows 98 is the best operating system I've ever seen."
or  "G*t*w*y computers are great and D*ll's break a lot...and C*mp*q's
      service is abysmal"
or  "You'll find your computer works best using K*ngst*n memory"
or even
    "Comdex/Fall in Vegas is still an easy show to attend, and the
      hotel prices are affordable."
would you want to know who I worked for?

If a consultant praised a vendor, wouldn't you want to know if
that vendor was also a client of theirs?  Similar point.

Context does count, in providing an often-valuable data point to
assess the writer's perspective/bias.  This is deja vu; I recall
this very argument re Xerxes -- a quick check of my saved postings 
show, from back in 1995, messages such as one with this header
(from me, in fact)

  To: online-news@marketplace.com
  Subject: Anonymity vs nymity

and my opinion hasn't changed.  I'll be happy to send people
copies of the old stuff; if Steve O wants, I'll send them to
him and he can decide whether they merit re-posting.




  Daniel Dern (ddern at world{dot}std{dot}com or )
    Internet writer, speaker, pundit & humorist/songwriter 
        => The Internet's Premiere Egress Point! <=

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