Blog karma is great. It's what keeps these things alive I suppose.
I post, then you post... karma, good stuff.
Anonymity is a curious creature. I spend most of my time with anonymous people (online, in games, etc). What I gather is that most people are just as honest or dishonest as they are in their real lives (duh, right? well, it's easy to see once someone points it out and believes it). Honest people don't indulge in dishonesty because of anonymity. Perceived virtues are not virtues. What I mean by "perceived virtues" is those good qualities we see in other people are perhaps not virtues at all, but masks or just plain habits. I for one believe the "fake it 'till you make it" policy is terrible. For me it is anyway, pretending to believe something until I do, rings very wrong. So, what's this have to do with anonymity and online postings? What I'm trying to tie together is the fact that anonymity bears no weight in whether people are honest or dishonest. People are not more open or more closed communicating anonymously. People can just as easily lie to themselves when posting anonymously as they can to everyone else.
When communication is opened in a new way (ie forums, comments, etc) people can discover how honest they really are if they're paying attention. There is a brief moment of transparency and we can feel the weight of our deceit (albeit however small) or feel the weight lifted and the road cleared.
I feel like I've had to clear a lot of road to be who I am today. Which is why I spend so much time thinking about communicating. Everything I've done in my life has only reinforced my opinion that communication is the key to life. Life itself is not all that great, it has moments though. We fill our lives with good things because without them it's... boring and lonely. If I can really communicate with someone though, it's honestly all I want to do. I am addicted to talking to people who can think and challenge me to communicate in new ways.
See that, if I wouldn't have started this blog I might have never made that realization about myself! Good or bad, there it is.
-Aaron
