Legal reasons (such as posting about something distasteful to your employer, or confession to an act of treason) are, i think, clearly good times to not post with your name attached. but is there a good reason to post it at all? perhaps. i certainly won't object to someone posting anonymously under those conditions, but i do think it deserves a second thought before posting at all.

but things that might sound different if they came from you ... are you worried about affecting the statement's credibility, or your own? i can't speak for everyone here, but i certainly try to respect the opinion on its own grounds rather than base that decision on the author (which is, in fact, why large sigs annoy me; i can ignore the author link until i'm done reading, but some sigs are too obvious). and in a close call, i'm more likely to trust you than an Anonymous Monk. so please elaborate on that reason.

As for any humorous node, whether the set-up for a joke, or a potentially disturbing joke, i think that AMhood is acceptable if it makes the joke funnier, but in general, i'd rather know who posted it. for instance, i'm very curious who wrote perl for bottoms, because i think it shows skill, even if it isn't what everybody wants (and hey, no poetry is to everyone's taste).

hm. i was supposed to ask, not answer... ah, well.

The author of perl for bottoms joined after posting that, but I'll let them choose to identify themselves or not.

If I post anonymous stuff about my current job, that doesn't mean I'm going to post inappropriate things. For example, recently someone admitted (pardon me for not finding the reference, I don't think the details matter much) that they had the Perl CD bookshelf inproperly shared at work. I might post such an admission anonymously simply because I wouldn't trust all of the employees at my current place of work to understand the nuances of such a public statement. I wouldn't name my employer and part of the reason for posting anonymously is that I don't assume that it is impossible to figure out who my current employer is just because I have never mentioned them. I have no desire to draw the attention of lawyers in my company's employ, no matter how unwarranted that attention might be.

Regarding humor: tye is not really me. I am both more and less than that (mostly more, I hope). Many of the details of my taste in humor are not shared by tye. This is a public forum and some things that I find funny are not appropriate for a public forum (actually, many of them aren't appropriate much of anywhere and they just have to bounce around in my head making me smirk). Once I had a funny thought that I wasn't sure was appropriate or not. It wasn't so bad that I felt "wrong" making it public. But I didn't want it associated with tye. I also didn't want a saint making such a joke. You can be curious all you want to but it will just cause you frustration. A little mystery in life is a good thing.

Regarding "coming from tye": If I make a wild speculation about something, I may do it anonymously as I don't want too much merit placed on the speculation just because "it came from tye" (such as because I'm a saint).

Also, I may post something simple akin to "I think you are overreacting" but do it anonymously because I have previously criticized that person and don't want people to assume that I'm just picking on them. This case is something that I only do after careful consideration. It is too easy to pick on someone but convince yourself that you aren't picking on them but that everyone else will think that you are... And if I chose to do this, it would only be small, low-key content. Flaming someone anonymously isn't something I do.

        - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")