Incognito Profiles

I think if you go back an reread my original post, I was not referring to posting your blood type, mailing address, where you work, how many times you have been married, etc,.,,etc.... It was simply wondering why some of the members won't even post what section of which country they are from. You would have to be pretty high on the paranoia scale in my opinion, to worry about stating that you were from Boston, or LA, or Dallas, thinking that some pedophile or terrorist is going to track you down with that wealth of information........   By the way, I have noticed that this lack of ID seems to occur mostly in my country ( the US) .....  The reason for my post, is that I have belonged to numerous forums in the last decade, and this is the first one I have encountered where the members seem to be so frightened of giving even the smallest bit of information about themselves.  

For me the only thing that catches my eye is the rating. But I am not sure whether that could be authentic or not on websites!

Identity theft

well captainbob767 in my case captainparanoia has an influence, without generalising well yes i do ive noticed the girls on the site seem to open up much more than the boys, photos and personal info etc, not sure why, maybe some wish to socialize, being an intp male such activities are beyond me

john boy

>:)

I'm quite the opposite of Reb on this...  I would prefer silly false information to nothing at all.  I'm here mostly to be entertained so...the more, the better.  I think perhaps it's different at a higher level where things are a bit more official...the 2000+ club.

Actually, just any avatar would do for me.  I don't like blank pictures.  I don't need info...I'd just like to see some personality :)

Just no animals.  At least not those that still have heads.

Well, when you see a person in the street they also don't have all their personal info written on their foreheads do they ? If you get to know them better and they feel that there is a reason / it is safe to tell you more about themselves they probably will.

Anyway, correspondence players in the past knew real names and postal adresses each other and nobody felt threatened. If people are really scared to reveal their real names because of internet identity theft and personal snoopers, then we could ask Erik to hide them for non-member visitors and bots (except caught cheaters, they should be exposed publicly).

Just a correction of Schachgeek's statement: The "harassed" member (mentioned above as professor) was for more than 99.999% certain cheater. Arguments for it were sound and serious, the discussion started in polite way. People (including myself) got angry, when he started arguing, because it came out he is also arrogant liar. He decided to close his account, because he knew it was only a matter of time his account would be closed anyway: he had been already reported and IMHO the evidence was overwhelming. Maybe he exchanged letters with the staff and they recommended him to close his account to avoid shame being exposed as confirmed cheater. But what really worries me, there are guys, who defend him: i ask myself whether they are his fellow-cheaters or just naive numbskulls?

I agree, there should be some form of protection, e.g. non-member visitors and web spiders shouldn't be allowed to read profiles. But i repeat, anonymity is impolite in human chess, it helps cheaters to avoid shame and come back multiple times.

First, there are no non-member visitors on this site, you probably mean non-premium members. However, even someone who is not a member at all can view for example these posts on the net. Who would the information be shown to then ? If non-premium members could not view your profile then surely you couldn't view theirs too, so again you would be playing strangers.

Of course, you could elect to play premium members only. As it is, of course you are not obliged to play people who don't put their name in their profile. Since the names are not being verified in any way there is no way you can know that they are authentic though, along with the other info. (I guess that those people who put the photos of famous actresses in their profile are probably not them.) It may also be noted that some of the cheaters, including the person you mentioned, did give their info in their profile.

No, i meant visitors who aren't logged in. In order to look other profiles, you should have created your own and be already logged in.

You won't be needing your identity then, right? 

I struggle to understand how you've got this so turned on it's head.

Anonymity is my right, visibility into other users' true identities is not yours.

TheGrobe is not really your name then ?

It's what I am, not who I am. 

Wrong forum -- please take it to the cheating discussion group where it's already been beaten to death.

Just because it's been beaten to death does't mean it can't continue to be beaten like the proverbial horse.

I agree.  If you think so as well then why do you continue to flog it?

dog food!!! YUM

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