Anonymous Posting (200)

45 Name: Anonymous 2005-05-30 15:41 ID:Heaven [Del]

>Contrast this to a meritocracy (something like capitalism). Now, your identity is everything. Your acheivements mean nothing without an identity to associate them with; the stronger the better.

Or something like an image board, where your only worth is in the text or images you supply to the whole. Only in this case anonymous achievements can mean something, if an idea can catch on.

>Humanity can never embrace anonymity; not totally.

Internet forums hardly encompass the entirety of the human condition.

People want to be the big name, the well-known poster. They want to be recognized by their online buddies and lord it over the "noobs". On almost every forum of that other kind, postcounts and registration dates become a mark of seniority which influences the reaction to anything put forward by the author. Now, not every member in any forum behaves this way, but enough do to make the pattern noticeable. In most general discussion forums you'll often find one or two extremely long threads dedicated to inane little games that are little more than an excuse to keep traffic flowing. They are usually dominated by a small circle of regulars who seemingly have little to do but play message board games. (see also shii's second bullet point http://shii.org/shiichan) Recently this kind of thing has expanded into posts earning points towards RPG-like stats, displayed under their names for all to see as if to say "look at me! look how much time and effort I've dedicated to this! respect me!".

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