Heyphannypack

I totally don't get what you're asking. But there's probably not a rule.

Say I and another member exchanged IM client info. Would we be either bandits?

Ether, even.

Well, the philosophy behind Ether isn't that anonymity is required, it's that there aren't any barriers to anonymity. Unlike MySpace, Facebook, etc., you don't have to go out of your way to avoid being identified. That being said, I've had to wrangle all sorts of trolls on all sorts of websites that I've run over the years, and I'm a bit nervous about the trolling possibilities that have gone unexploited so far. One of them is that someone could come on here and identify themselves by full name as their intended victim and post all sorts of libelous things, e.g. "Hey, my name's Graham Watson and I love fucking farm animals and eating live mice". Without a name attached to a post like that, it just a trollish curiosity. With a name, that's some drama that I'd like to avoid. But maybe I'm paranoid.

So that's the only reason why anonymity is sort of encouraged, and that's only when it comes to posting, and that's an admittedly weak argument for it. When it comes to your communication with other 'Thinkers', go nuts. I set things up so that if someone doesn't want to talk, then you can't talk to them. Just be nice. \8~J

And everybody calls Ether "either". It's an amazingly persistent typo. Fuck, I do half the time when I'm typing quickly.

I was actually thinking of posting my AIM, since everyone seems so fucking lonely. Whatchu think?

I hear live mice are like opiates, in that they're addicting, and easily swallowed.

Doo it, duude. Post dat shit.