Is your anonymity here more important to you than meeting interesting people you might meet elsewhere?

I’m put off by incomplete profiles of “people” who are afraid of something and have no idea how to deal with how friends in the real world might view their inclusion here as being less than ideal or desirable.

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ViciDraco · 41-45, M

I kind of started being online in an era where you protected your identity up front and then later shared it with individuals you grew to trust. As for the supposed trade off you mention, I cannot say that being on Facebook with my real identity made me any better friends. Never really met anyone new on Facebook. If anything, the anonymity here spurs more efforts to learn each other because you aren't surrounded by the friends you know in real life.

Most of my best online friends were made from behind gaming screen names anyways.

Lonar2 · 26-30, F

@ViciDraco What’s the happy medium here then?

ViciDraco · 41-45, M

@Lonar2 There may not be one. The community is designed to operate in a specific way and has largely drawn from people that choose to be here because of that design. I guess the question really becomes: What is the root of the displeasure? How does whether a person's real world friends know that they are here impact how complete of a profile they are putting up for the benefit of strangers is? Is it about how some people abuse the anonymity to act like total asshats?