I'm going to purposefully try to distance what I'm about to say from the
specific instances that have come up in the FML lately.
 
People may have a good deal very many and valid reasons to post anonymously,
particularly in a ferret forum.  I think the FML is set up to both
acknowledge and to provide for this need.  While there may be particular
instances where one of this reasons happens to be "cowardice" (and even
that stands in good need of some defining; is it cowardice to wish to
protect your identity as a ferret owner if you leave, say, in a place
like California?  Is it even cowardice to wish to protect your privacy,
particularly considering the lengths to which certain troubled and insecure
people have been known to go to "handle" disagreement with their opinions?
Even in the FML there have been reports of idiots stalking or sending email
threats to other folks), I feel uncomfortable watching the ease with which
anonymity gets equated with cowardice sometimes.  Many people may simply
choose anonymity to avoid the inconveniences that some of the kooks out
there are only too willing to cause.
 
In my opinion internet "courage" is one of those marginally meaningful
virtual things --like cybersex--, which some people seem to like to make
a great rhetorical deal about.  IMHO, courage is something that can be
tested in the real world, face to face with duress or circumstances that
require *real* courage to come out.  People who actually display this
type of courage don't usually seem to need to do much talking or posturing
about it.
 
When ever somebody calls me a coward on-line, I laugh, and think to myself
that if they can ever get to do that in real life and get away with it scot
free, then maybe they'll have an opinion worth listening to.
 
IMO what anybody types on a keyboard while facing a monitor screen should
not be taken too seriously as a test of courage or cowardice, particularly
since virtual interaction can often be used by some folks to compensate for
lacks, real, imagined or self-imposed, in their real life personalities.
A cowardly person will do things on-line that will reveal that cowardice
to anybody who pays close attention.  Anonymity may *sometimes* be one of
them, but often enough it isn't.
 
Cheers,
 
Jaime
[Posted in FML issue 3053]