DanUK wrote "Brian, you seem to assume everyone who wishes to remain anonymous has bad intentions. "

NO.

Is that clear enough? I already explained that. I think the majority of them demonstrate bad behavior, but even the ones that do not have bad intentions are having a negative effect on the forum without realizing it. I'm trying to give examples of how that works.

billybigconkers,

If you truly are not experienced in online forums, one of the first things that you need to know is that the TONE of a person's post is often easy to misinterpret. It happens very often. You may think that I'm seething at the mouth and cackling as I'm writing my posts here, but I'm not. I'm just sitting here typing out my points as thoroughly as I can.

That said, your reply was highly over-reactive. If you look back, you might see I didn't actually make any accusations of you. Really, scroll up and re-read it. If I was certain that you were an alias account, I would have suspended your account already and I wouldn't be having this conversation with you.

Rather, what I was doing was giving an example of the type of speculation that surrounds anonymous accounts on forums. People can very quickly (and justifiably) question the motives of an anonymous poster. That is how anonymity sculpts the conversation even when a person could very well be innocent of ulterior motives.

billybigconkers wrote: "you're the other side of the world in louisville talking shit about me"

Absolutely not. I didn't talk shit about you once. That is a ridiculous assertion. So far, we've been having a very reasonable conversation until your post.

billybigconkers wrote: "you feel that because you're name is attached to the comments that it makes you brave?"

I don't know if brave is the word I would use. I personally don't think it's very dangerous to let your identity be known. I would say it's responsible. Non-anonymous people are being responsible by letting people know who they are (even if they are nobody special). They are not afraid of sharing a small bit of information about who they are for the benefit of the community. In this thread, I'm trying to explain reasons why that benefits the community.

I've known people who have suffered from identity theft. My parents went through that in 2009. Identity theft comes mostly from people stealing other people's mail, intercepting someone's credit card information or hacking into someone's e-mail account. Identity theft doesn't happen from someone posting their real name and city in their user profile, which is what I'm talking about here.

Your long post illustrates one of the major issues that I've mentioned earlier on this thread. If YOU, some anonymous guy, are so easily offended by what appeared to you to be an accusation, then how do you think that fighters feel as they get accused and battered constantly by all sorts of random people? How do you think you would handle it if you were a fighter? Who knows, maybe you are a fighter and you're anonymous for that very reason, to not take flack from people.

billybigconkers wrote: "but it says more about you & how you think, that rather than look for a simple explanation you look for something more sinister"

The way that I think and interpret people's behavior on here (especially with respect to anonymous accounts) is based on years of moderation experience. If you saw things from my perspective, if you actually did Ax moderation for even a year, you would understand what really goes on with anonymous accounts. That type of behavior is real, not make believe. There has been a lot of deplorable behavior behind anonymous accounts. There are some very sneaky, manipulative, backstabbing, attacking, self-serving and immature individuals within the UK fight community. I've seen it. I've dealt with it.

billybigconkers wrote: "it's good for yourself that you're content being considered an arsehole but it's hardly something to wear with pride like a badge of honour, yet you seem to think it is, potentially you've either some sort of screw loose(who cares?), an individual with an enthusiasm for being abrasive, just for fun or how did you say it? to start a conversation? or you've just never had a really good punch on the nose, perhaps you have? & that's why you act like this behind a screen?"

Now this is just lashing out. You basically just called me an asshole. I don't consider myself an asshole and I don't know where you got that idea, nor am I proud to be one. It's unfortunate that you feel the need to characterize me in this way. The only thing controversial I said on this thread is calling anonymous users cowardly. I also gave supporting reasons.

I always aspire to be honest and direct. It takes a lot of effort to do that. The result can be extremely valuable in conversations, just getting right to the point of a matter. I try to be careful with my words, but as I get older, I feel less of a need to defend myself. I guess I've always had that personality trait to some degree, but it's increasing as I get older.

Here is something that should be made clear: When you come to Ax, you are coming to my house. Ax is like a big party, or a convention where I try to provide a place for the fight community to interact. People come here and act like they have the right to do anything they want. They don't. I've put over a decade worth of work into this place. You want to talk about trust? I'm trusting each and every one of you to come here and act responsibly, even though some of you can't be bothered to tell everyone your name or location. Let me ask you, would you throw a party at your house where random people show up from the street wearing masks and 90% of them stirring trouble? If you tell everybody they can't wear a mask, is that being unfair to the 10% who weren't hurting anybody? I don't think so.

This is where I think website communities are evolving. People are learning that anonymity was a fun attraction for the internet in the beginning, but it clearly brings out the worst in people and it doesn't mimic any real-world human interaction. This website has a stated purpose. It's not here for mere entertainment. If anything useful is going to be done here, people need to trust other people.

I may be some random guy from the land of KFC, but you can trust AT LEAST that I am Brian Ritchie and I don't have ulterior motives. My history on this site, which is now tied to my identity, supports that.