Posted by fleeting flutterby on October 20, 2009, at 14:40:18
In reply to Re: How does this make sense??, posted by Dinah on October 20, 2009, at 12:52:37
> As I recall, it came about as a compromise, and like most compromises may not be *entirely* pleasing to anyone at all.<<
---flutterby--: Oh, I didn't know that.
> The idea was that there can be good reasons to wish to change a name, even change it anonymously. But that it could be a bit crazymaking to be talking to someone who appeared to be a newcomer but who had the advantage of you (in the old fashioned sense of the word) in that they already had a history with you, while you had no idea of that.<<---flutterby--: this is, I think, what makes me feel uneasy-- "it could be a bit crazymaking to be talking to someone who appeared to be a newcomer but who had the advantage of you (in the old fashioned sense of the word) in that they already had a history with you, while you had no idea of that." ....
.... You said it better than I did. :o) It can feel confusing and unsafe, for some of us.
> So the compromise was to announce the name change, thus making it clear that a "new" poster wasn't actually new, but to make it completely a matter of choice whether to announce who they used to be.<<---flutterby--: Ah! So it's only a matter of knowing whether the poster is new or not-- NOT a matter of who exactly they were before. I understand now-- thank you. still, I'll be leery of unknown poster names, since I don't know if I knew them before or not...... kind of like dissociating....*sigh*......ugh.....
>
> Dinah
>
> Who has had, on occasion, other posting names, but always some variant of Dinah.<<---flutterby--: heh, now THAT I could feel comfortable with-- some form of the old name. :o) Thanks Dinah for explaining, I appreciate it.
Guess the hypervigilence and confusion will just hang on in this head of mine- while i'm here at this site.... since there's no way to know who WAS who......??..... darn it....
poster:fleeting flutterby
thread:921679
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20090813/msgs/921700.html