[Turbin]

You’re in a bridge club. A masked person enters and asks to play in your table. (Isn’t Carnival time). “Who are you, please?” You ask. “This is none your business” is the reply.
This absurd is a common way in internet. I can see the anonymity of George Bush, Silvio Berlusconi, Michael Shumaker. I can understand also the reasons of the chatter searching a flirt (but, in the latter case, he/her would say the name to the contact).
Cannot tolerate the “active defense”, i.e. the anonymous that, behind this wall, offends and threatens. The nick’s wall is, of course, by paper, because not only BBO can block the computer; it’s also easy to bring a legal action against the poor idiot. (The postal police can identify in few minutes the telephone number).
All this, however, costs time. Then here’s my way against these people: I’ll never accept unidentified people in my table or in my team matches, but some other, known by me, knows them and grants for the behaviour.
Paolo

[the hog]

We have been through this before. My view is that is everyone's right to retain their anonymity if they should wish to do so. There may be many good reasons for wishing to remain anonymous. Names can be fake anyway, so what is the problem?

[Free]

Ok, the reaction of the anonymous person isn't the best you had in years, but maybe he thought you really wanted to know who he was and didnt want to say it.

If I have someone who I'd like to know who he/she is (and who speaks to me) I simply ask: "Excuse me, but do I know you from somewhere?". Never had a bad reaction on that one. Most times I hear "no" or "yes blablabla" and then I know enough...

[csdenmark]

Absolutely nobody have a good reason for not disclosing their real identity - maybe except the rude ones!

I never accept anonymous people for partnership - but BBO has forced me to accept for opps. A very poor decision I think.

The solution is simply to state the name from registration form automatically.

------ here below my information ----------------------------------------------

Hello - I am looking for partner. Incognito's are by me ruled out for partnership due to info here on WEB-sites: http://groups.msn.co.../incognito.msnw

[uday]

Csdenmark: there is no point insisting on something unless we have the power to back up our insistence.

Lets say we decided to "force" people to enter real names ( leaving aside the issue of whether we should or shouldnt do so)

We'd see a slew of new users named Mickey Mouse1, Mickey Mouse2/, and so on .

Once this happened, you would not be able to trust *any* profile - since we *forced* the entry of the name, we would no longer be able to trust *any* of the names.

In other words- it does not matter what you want; it does not matter what we want. Unless we are willing to insist upon a form of ID like a fax of a passport, or a credit card, we have no way of making someone enter a real name.

[Free]

Exactly. Everything on the internet is anonymous, you just dont realise it. Who says that your name is Claus? It could well be, but can we ever prove it? It can also be Paul, or even Britney...

The only thing people should fill in imo is their level of play. But then you get problems again, because some beginners consider themselves experts and vice versa. It's just interesting to know what kind of player you sit with...

[csdenmark]

Right we dont know the real thing - but that is no reason for not trying to achive what is best possible.

The reason for 'defaults' are to help people. Accepting a default you will normally be right in assuming you are applying to good standards. Then you can later modify as you get more information yourself.

'Private' is the default for name - and really many, by registration, just assume this is the right approach to accept. I see many who later switch into their real names. 'Private' is simply misleading for default here. Put in name from registration form as default - then all will be right informed of good standards and it will be needed to modify into something silly like 'Private', 'Mickey Mouse' etc. When you are asked for your name it is a violation of code of conduct refusing to inform. - On BBO you are asked!

'Private' is the default for e-mail. I think that field is of no use - and I would cry dry tears to see that field disappearing.

'Private' is the default skill level. I think this field is of little importance. I would prefere the field simply not to be displayed if not filled out with one of the real options.

I think many restrictions we see are made simply because we don't have a button enforcing decent behavior. Therefore several impose their personal standards by restricting entry to tables or tournaments.

[JRG]

Well it is possible to know, with varying degrees of certaintly, that someone is who he says he is. This is done using certificates.

Unfortunately, it probably would not work very well for BBO and it is awkward to set up (as a user). I use a certificate for my e-mail messages (Mac OS X 10.3 supports it) and it works very well (but though following the instructions to get a certificate was not difficult, it was onerous). Also, there are varying degrees of trust (and ways to improve the "trust" level).

In any case, it can actually be done.

[the hog]

With all due respects, if someone writes me a cheque, I want to know who it is. If I play on line with somebody, why do I need to know who they are if they don't want to tell me? As for having your email address advertised, well if you are prepared to do that, you are silly for various reasons, not just the spam issue imho.

[nilbes]

When I entered BBO some couple of years ago I had filled out the card rather properly... name, country..flag... (except the e-mail part which I found dangerous and still do) In short I filled out whatever there was to fill

Then something very funny and sad happenned: I was 70% denied entry to tables and found no partners in tournaments. First I thought well people dont know me yet....

Then one day I edited my profile nothing on it now but skill level(which is a rather useless thing have seen players whose names I know by now change them constantly to enter certain tournaments)

Today Iam happily playing in tournaments and am accepted to tables and rather sad about it that it should happen this way cause I am rather proud of may name and country
What a paradox
Wanted to tell this only so some could understand one of the reasons people stay incognito one musnt asume always that there are some devious reasons behind it