anonymous contributions [RE: st: Can the viewer window be rendered by Firefox instead? And other speech recognition tips]

[Maarten Buis <maartenlbuis@gmail.com>]

------ pawstats-pats@yahoo.com <pawstats-pats@yahoo.com>
Regarding the use of real names I am indeed aware of the FAQ and the
omission of my real name is by no means intended as a sign of
disrespect to fellow users. By the same token, I would also ask the
real name proponents to consider that in the age of web indices
different folks have different needs for privacy. For example, folks
outside of academia, folks with disabilities such as those that
necessitate the use of speech recognition, or folks seeking employment
in areas or geographies with fewer protections may not wish to see
their postings show up every time a potential employer or interviewer
googles their name.

There is always a tradeoff with such decisions. The Statalist is
intended for technical discussion that will not get people fired or in
jail, and for the vast majority of discussions I cannot possibly
imagine that not being the case. For such discussions it is very
beneficial to know who you are talking to, as it encourages more
polite and reasonable discussion. My estimate would be that the gain
from allowing anonymous contributions would not outweigh the cost,
especially since you can contact StataCorp directly if you need help
on Stata and also need privacy:
<http://www.stata.com/support/tech-support/>.

-- Maarten

--------------------------
Maarten L. Buis
Institut fuer Soziologie
Universitaet Tuebingen
Wilhelmstrasse 36
72074 Tuebingen
Germany


http://www.maartenbuis.nl
--------------------------
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