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My first question is what would keep someone from injecting personalizing aspects of posts into the post itself? All it would take is a "fireworks_god" at the end of the post to establish identity.

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The interesting thing is that I could end my post with fireworks_god too, so after a season of getting acquainted with the system I think most people would disregard such an identity statement, and almost no-one would do it. It seems a bit pointless to do in a fully anonymous thread (which may entirely be one person responding to himself for all anyone knows ) and who's going to buy it anyway?

It's a completely different thing, thats the beauty of it. Most posting strategies and hidden agendas in usual forums simply don't work on such a fully anonymous system.

On 2channel people who post an identity are frowned upon by some while others shrug their shoulders. It's a system revolving around pure information which has to be independently judged for its merit.

Its an eerie thought to enter a kind of Borg Cube, but it won't repace our good old Shroomery, just add to it. The Pub has a LOT of traffic, and can afford to lose some to 2shroomery, so that threads stay up a bit longer there.

I wouldn't want to solely post on 2shroomery, but if it has acquired a good vibe of its own I'd definitely stop by every time I visit the site.

One of the founding principles of 2channel is that the anonymity promote a freedom of speech which is greater than most people allow themselves on a forum where they have a reputation. This would make 2shroomery a place for raw data and where people feel more free to discuss the really personal stuff. If at 2ch ten million people do it everyday, making it the world's BIGGEST forum, then there must be an interesting, compelling or even addictive potential to the anonymity thing.

And we'd be innovative, yet another unique feature of our great site

Jiggy, I'm glad you dig it, I really value your opinion you know that

But in 2shroomery the above statement would not happen! I'd see a post with no name, and respond as a ghost as well.

Let's say you weren't jiggy but somebody who tends to be unpleasant, lets say Geokills
It would matter not in 2shroomery! Instead of reading with anticipation like I would with you, or bracing for unpleasantness like I would with a post by Geokills in other words showing poster bias which we all do, I would read, and then respond to, the anonymous post with an open mind unhindered by prejudices good or bad.
That's unique. Like you said, you don't have that anywhere.

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I was saying this would be a neat experiment in S&P a few years back.

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You can't do that to people! You can't anonymize a forum they know and love, especially not a forum which leans as heavily on ego and reputation as P&S. For not a few P&S posters, you have to establish a status as a credible poster before you're off the ignore list. With anonymization such bias is obliterated. All that matters is the words you write in said post. You won't even be judged for that because there is no you
You can't take people's forum away - it has to be a fresh start for all.

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There would have to be a rule that you can't sign your posts. People could slander others in ways unimaginable with the freedom to sign off on someone else's known user name.

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I would call it the FREEDOM Forum. You'd be free to be whatever you want to be from post to post. There would be NO expectations others hold of you to live up too. THAT would be so refreshing.

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Personally I prefer 2shroomery because it pays hommage to 2channel who pioneered the concept, it adds our own name and the 2 refers to a second approach to posting


I see only two obstacles, being the coding challenge (making it work, look good and have the shroomery feel), and the startoff period which is always hard for a forum, but especially for one running on rules alien to our everyday lives.

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First rate sociology experiement this would be to see how humans would communicate with ego idenifyers stripped away.

I think it would rock!

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I like the idea, but there would have to be a way to get quick-reply working correctly without usernames.

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Does anyone actually use quickreply? 

Perhaps quickreply could be tied to the postnumber or (easier on the poster but harder on the coder) successive posts in a thread could be given a number starting with one and proceeding as usual.
[Re: post7]

This would keep anonymity intact but indeed does away with a lot of user puzzling. Replyto indeed is quite useful, so it would be great if we could preserve both that and the anonymity of the posters.

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You can't do that to people! You can't anonymize a forum they know and love, especially not a forum which leans as heavily on ego and reputation as P&S.

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That was never the idea. When I brought it up in a post, it was to trial it as a separate experimental forum. I wouldn't want to see identifiers go in ANY current forum.  We all like and enjoy getting to know others personally here. This forum idea is just for experimental use to see how conversation would change with (sense of self) ego creation,  protection and defenses removed.

Deff and I were on the subject of ego protection and defenses and the creation of persona's people work to maintain, wondering what a world without them would be like. Thats when I got the idea that we could sort of know by creating such a forum. It was just discussed in wishful thinking at the time (still is now). I think deff raised his concern about not being able to have a discussion with anyone in it though.

I loved the idea of random anonymous repliers in a single thread. Rail roading people into stations would become very difficult, if they think they are replying to X's comments who they believe they have been steering just where they want them for the kill and then Y popped up in his place, from another track, it would get INTERESTING.

It sounds like people here do want the ability to follow the identity of a poster in at least the thread they are in. I liked the idea of the total free for all, but whatever. 

To keep an idenifyer in just a thread for ongoing one on one discussions sake, that could be done with post numbers referenced or quotes to keep the anonymous programming simple. We would still at least be experiencing the experiment of identity loss from thread to thread. I'd still love to experiment with even just that.

Good additional consideration you raised about not being able to read with bias's towards certain posters formed.  It would encourage a habit of more open minded reading from all of us, which could serve us greatly in life.

I am so for all of the positive benefits that could come from such an experimental forum.

Oooh something else that may be neat to watch for would be if we saw the nature of discussions and people even change in the regular forums after a while and how so. Shy people may be brought out of shells and build confidence through it. Others may learn to they can still be heard and respected if they tone down the bravado and props.

Because it would be a separate experimental forum, anyone who likes identifyers all of the time don;t have to ever use it.

The initial question is, how many would be interested in using it and why do they think it would be a cool alternative forum option to experience some virtual ego loss within.

I see awesome potential with it and I am happy to see you made a formal move for maybe making it happen here.

Thanks for the nice comments wiccan.  

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Imagine a Shroomery thread just like any other, but with username, ratings, avatars, stats and signatures missing:

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Wiccan_Seeker said:

You can't do that to people! You can't anonymize a forum they know and love, especially not a forum which leans as heavily on ego and reputation as P&S. For not a few P&S posters, you have to establish a status as a credible poster before you're off the ignore list.

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Is there any manner with which you will be substantiating this?

Identity certainly plays a role in P&S, as we are essentially expressing our own perspective and philosophy on life, and, over time, one feels as though one knows more and more about the person one is interacting with, and notice that one can really know what they are saying. I can't say that I have seen new posters being ignored because they are not established as credible - firstly, how would one become credible?, and, secondly, I often times see new posters complimented for their points of view.

Clearly a side point, and one that has nothing to do with the forum that you are proposing, but simply a point that identity on a forum is certainly not an undesireable thing. There are advantages and disadvantages to everything, naturally. Another aspect of P&S that relates to this is how one can carefully observe another poster develop their perspective on life itself over time, and having a sense of who else has influenced them. Its very subtle, but it is enjoyable to notice.


Peace.