NavList:

I switched the thread title since the poor guy who came here asking about his Kollsman sextant is going to think we're a bunch of idiots for babbling about this meta-topic rather than addressing his question.

George H, you wrote:
"Already, with the new Navlist arrangement, we have had two messages [Sent
anonymously from the message boards]."

George, ALL email is anonymous (including in some ways that worried me enough to get us off google groups). But before the recent change that I made, people have been sending anonymous posts for years using services that mask their "real" email addresses and other tricks. The only difference now is that people can CHOOSE to state explicitly that they are posting anonymously. If they make that choice, why should you complain? If you answer their questions or help them in some way, they'll feel welcome and introduce themselves. Most people will say who they are by name at least after they have explored the group for a while and become comfortable with the place. And really, isn't that exactly how things usually work in the real world? If you go to a public lecture or meeting, and someone has a question, while some people will introduce themselves before asking their questions, many feel more comfortable asking first. It saves time. And yes, it preserves a little bit of privacy for them. And in this age, preserving a little privacy is something we should all try to do.

And you wrote:
"I do not understand this quest for anonymity, and deplore it."

Well, then maybe you could have asked him or her, "hey, by the way, what's your name?" Anonymity and privacy in general are, in fact, rapidly disappearing online. I prefer to talk to people that I know by name, and especially dislike "handles" and online "nicknames", but it's up to each person to decide.

And you wrote:
"Why should anyone posting on Navlist wish to conceal his identity from the rest?"

I can think of lots and lots of reasons. Here's a list for NavList:
1) general concern about online security, abuse of personal information, etc. for the purposes of criminal activity: identity theft, extortion, etc.
2) mild embarrassment among one's peers regarding the topic of celestial navigation. Many people find that their friends and even loved ones think that they are "weird" for taking an interest in this topic. So they post anonymously or under a pseudonym so that their friends won't find out about their secret interest. How would they find out? Googling.
3) professional concerns. Some people want to limit online references to their names to matters in a specific topic. For example, if you're a young academic climbing the ladder, you might not want someone googling you and finding that you engage in pursuits which they might interpret as frivolous. A search should yield your academic papers and nothing else.
4) anxiety over becoming a member of any group. This is quite common. Many people like to "hang out" along the periphery (in the real world and online) getting the lay of the land, learning the ropes, finding out how it all works before they're willing to become part of "it".
5) posting efficiency. Most people who have been online for a while have learned that if you give your email address then you're shunted off into some long click this- click that, interpret the artistic merits of this fuzzy text to prove you're human, etc., when all they want to do is ask a quick question and get on with it!
6) experience from reading archived posts. Plenty of NavList newcomers spend a lot of time reading the archived messages, and several newcomers have shared with me their concerns that one of the "veterans" will bite their heads off for asking a stupid question. This, too, is a common phenomenon in the "real world". Incidentally, when they ask me, I tell them to post with their real names and don't worry -- we love thinking about the basics.
7) avoiding sexism and inappropriate offline interaction. This mostly applies to potential female participants. Even men who consider themselves "enlightened" will act differently when they believe they have met an available woman online. It's unfortunate, but it's definitely true. If you don't believe this, I highly recommend signing up in some technical online community, something which you are quite sure is gender-neutral as far as discussions are concerned, under a female name. Observe how differently you are treated.
8) and the biggie... [insert drum roll...] fear of spamming. It's sad, but it's true. If you give up your email address online, it may come back to haunt you with a barrage of messages trying to get you to visit some online pharmacy to solve whatever "little problem" you may think you have. Any message posted online that includes your email address "in the open" and unmasked is harvested by automated search programs that seek out the pattern of an email address in all the text they find online no matter what the context. THAT is what gets you on spam lists.

I am sure there are more reasons. But the bottom line here is that there really are good reasons. It's not just somebody being "shady". So give 'em a break. In the past year since I instituted non-member posting, nearly ALL of our active new members have begun by posting without joining. It's all about providing people with an easy pathway into the community that suits THEIR needs and attitudes. Have a little sympathy for the reality that all people are different. Some have concerns which don't match yours, and they might be right or they might not, but vive la difference. There's no need to deplore anything.

By the way, I am fairly sure that one of the "anonymous" posts in the past few days was just an accident. He forgot to enter his posting code. I think I will probably modify that to ask for confirmation to avoid such accidents. The other post was probably genuinely anonymous. Why should we discourage conversations that are right on-topic, no matter how they're delivered to us?

George, you wrote:
"I don't know about other Navlist members, but quite a lot of my communication with others is done backstage, off-list, and indeed most of that has been both informative and enjoyable. It's easy for me to communicate one-to-one with others, as they can with me, without bothering the list."

Yes, I am aware of that, and I am sure that many others on NavList do the same. But myself, I try to keep all my navigationally-relevant conversations ON-list. Why have a community otherwise? But that's just my personal preference. I would encourage all of you who take your navigationally-relevant messages off-list to consider that you may be denying yourself broader input and a more interesting conversation, but the trend these days is towards one-to-many online communities (also known as "blogging") while many-to-many communities like NavList are slowly declining, and there is a reason for that. Then again, NavList had its two biggest months in years in the past two months, so we must be doing something right.

You wrote:
"For many years now, all my postings have included, with the email address,
my postal address and phone number, which have proved useful when the email
address is deliberately garbled, as it seems to be on the message board.
That openness has never caused me any problems. What purpose does the garbling serve?"

Masking of email addresses has been the rule in online communities for years, and with good reason. Do you honestly not understand this, George? I am asking in all sincerity. If you don't see why it's done, I would be happy to elaborate.

Having said all that, have you bothered to visit the new "Join Now" page or the page that lets members edit their preferences? If you do so, you will see that there is ample encouragement to include a "real name" (no handles or nicknames, please). Also, you will see that established members can send email to any other NavList member through the message boards and doing this directly exposes that underlying bit of data that you were wondering about. That is, it will give you the text that appears on either side of the 'at' sign.

As for the fact that your detailed personal info, address and phone number, has not been used for any malicious purpose, you should consider the possibility that you have merely been lucky. Here's hoping your luck holds.

-FER

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