Oh my!
They say one can lose her virginity / his boyhood only once but this discussion kind of makes me question that statement...
Okay. I'm forty and thence a gaffer in this envirovenment but I have never thought of myself to be a total fool. Yes I know one can show around being anything or anyone in the netlife but that the social-laws and basic human psychology of RL can't be escaped. I know these.
But somehow I have just lulled myself into believing that people on this forum were exceptions to the rule... well most of us. And indeed I'm not sure how exceptional my imaginations would be. I mean go to any popular sites that have tens of thousands of posters everyday and you should meet thousands of imposters and fun-makers. But somehow I though here in the cozy silence and darkness of the Barrow-Downs I actually thought I was discussing with some
real people - like on the exclusively scientific web-fora and possibly other non-commercial, subject-based sites. Not all the fora in the net are for personal ego-testing and -tripping (even if one can do that as oneself too!

).
So pointing at the last one in the brackets you ask about the "real people"? A good question. But let's settle with whatever we are here; some of us want to show how bright they are with the Tolkien trivia, others wish to show how much brains they have, some may want to escape their "serious role" in RL here just to have fun, others will be serious here as they are the jokers in the RL, some may have trouble being jovial in the RL and here they are the heartiest of people and vice versa, etc... Yes, that's not unherd of nor improbable. But I have thought people here were being consistent. And the 'Downers I have met they all have quite fitted the image I've had about them online (except they have been a lot nicer and "more worthy of being friends with" I could have ever imagined). Some people just go openly online - and in the best case continue their relationships on RL!
But you're right. This is not so secure one might think. And what you guys say makes me reconsider a lot of things here.
*just imagining whether
alatar actually is also
the phantom, or whether
Saucepanman has not actually left us but continues his career here as
Sally, or if I ask for
Form to come and visit my house on his trip to Finland and he turns out to be an atheist!*
Woof!
That's hair-raising!
PS.
Alatar: I really can't see how much you think about this PM:ing another Downer to make a line so that you could then come up with the stinger... or a punchline. That thought has never occured to me...