ssorenn: It happened to me on this Forum a few years back. Don't remember who it was (my PM archive doesn't go back that far, though I don't think it was Sherlock Holmes), but this user got very, very close on the first try.

What kind of sad sack wants to stalk people they meet online?

Are they really so threatened by free speech? I guess so.

As if finding out someones real name and real location makes any difference? I guess some people may think that gives them power and leverage over someone - these are not good people.

"What kind of sad sack wants to stalk people they meet online?" There are some really interesting people out there in the world, fiedles.
"Are they really so threatened by free speech?" lolwut
"As if finding out someones real name and real location makes any difference?" Maybe it settles some sort of curiosity? I don't know, I'm not some sort of weirdo that cares enough about strangers online to do that shit.

This is why you don't say anything that you would not say to somebodies face. Then if they look you up you have no issues.

ssorenn: I always say what I think. I have no shame about my beliefs.

"I have no shame about my beliefs." Neither does James, as you can tell.

Who +1'd me as a 'hate-mongerer', by the way? I've never been called that before.

JECE: That's because your hate-mongering scared us away from calling you one.

Ha ha. You're on a roll.

https://38.media.tumblr.com/16727df3dc259986f34466668bb5ed33/tumblr_nddxf2XzYY1tvf9p0o1_400.gif

What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my class in the 2011 School of War on webDiplomacy, have a GR of over 9000, and I’ve been involved in numerous secret raids on Playdip, and I have over 300 solos in Winner-Take-All games. I am trained in psychological warfare and I’m the top stabber on the entire US F2F circuit. You are nothing to me but just another bag of dots. I will wipe you the fuck off this map with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying you’ll support me and then fail to do so? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies amongst all my allies and your userID is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes you out into an elimination that stays on your record forever. You and your Ghost Rating is fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can eliminate you in over seven hundred ways, and that’s just with my own units with no support moves. Not only am I extensively trained in cutting supports, but I have access to every trick in the DATC book and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little “clever” comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn’t, you didn’t, and now you’re paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over your supply centers and you will drown in it. You’re fucking eliminated, kiddo.

@JECE. I did not say you don't speak your beliefs, I said you probably would say certain things to people's faces that you say here.

Not me, actually. I'd like to think everything I say here I could say to someone's face.

The anonymity of the internet is pretty terrific, it's helped allow me to conceal the fact that i'm really jut a cat that's learned english and how to type. Unfortunately i can only really keep it going for about 15 seconds, after which i just end up gettti-meowmeowmeow ..meow.. meow ..meow .. meow .. meow ..

^Cat types faster than me. Great..

I think I share less of what's on my mind when online.
For one, I don't know many of you properly, so who would I be to judge you on the basis of several characters on a screen.
Second, I know that there are many who unfairly judge people on the characters on a screen, so I tend to speak only when I truly think it adds an additional viewpoint to the conversation.

In short, I guess the perceived anonymity of the internet makes lurker types lurk more, and helps troll-types troll more. And then we pas it off as a world-wide forum of opinion. And cats.

That's a good assessment

Feel free to +1 it.

Since I post sparsely, I need to have a decent +1-to-post-ratio to be able to keep my job as mod. ;-)

Whore

See, and that with just a few characters on a screen!

+1 to you sir.

It's got a lot of disadvantages, and I'm not sure how to balance them against the good. At least one good is that it makes it easier to express opinions that are unpopular for reasons other than their merit, because it is harder to bring social pressure to bear. That's the reason some of the obnoxious behavior you decry exists, as well; but it should hardly be a controversial point that plenty of times in human society, some types of speech are denigrated and silenced for bad reasons, too. Online anonymity amplifies free speech, for good and bad.