Members of the forum can find out who I am by checking my email address.  Those who are lurkers will have to join the forum to find out.

The Royal Caledonian Curling Club will not take the forum seriously until posters shed their anonymity and will certainly not respond to anonymous posts.  Colin Grahamslaw differed on the rights and wrongs of this from a couple of us at the meeting, but in any case, the choice is stark: keep the forum as something of a talking shop or try to be a positive force for change by losing our anonymity.

My own thought is that it would be a shame to lose the anonymity as it does allow people to open up where otherwise they might not be able to for fear of career repercussions etc.  If you really feel strongly about something, send Colin or Bob an email - they guaranteed that they would respond.

I think the problem with names is that some will be known and some won't.  I can pretty much Guarantee 95% to 99% of people won't know who I am or even have heard of me, but it seems to be the case that 90% or so of the posters on here are either well known or high enough up the tree to have something to lose if they were identified. 

Oh and I just tried to check and see who you were Gramancho but you address come up listed as hidden.

Thanks for flagging that up, strathydoug.  I think I have edited things so that you can now see.

Also, the fact that you have to register in order to post, takes away a certain part of anonymity. Meaning that if you post rubbish all day, nobody will actually take you serious if you contribute something meaningful once in a while. E.g. you will build yourself a reputation with your nickname, which can then be used as an indicator of how serious your posts should be taken. Best counter example is the messageboard of the "Swiss Curling Player", a forum similar to this one, but with an registered and an unregistered section. While there are some people who regularly contribute well thought through posts in the unregistered section, there's also plenty of idiots who run around on there. Not so much on the registered boards, since hesitation of registering keeps away many of the rude posters...


But I think the "anonymity" of this forum (registered, but not necessary with your real name) has one big advantage: Because you mostly don't really know who's behind the nicks, everybody starts out on an even turf regarding the weight their opinion carries.

I mean, if you can't really know who's saying something, you are more likely to actually read this person's post, rather than dismissing it "as an opinion from some unimportant, not relevant person". I mean, to be honest, the opinion of a former scottish champion, or a scottish representative will carry much more weight than the opinion of a "lowly RCCC member" would. While this certainly has its reasons, I think a forum like this should also be for common members to express and discuss opinions, which the elite and the governing body should have a look at. They may take up those ideas or may not. But often, the normal members also care for what's happening and their thoughts may be valuable additions, so they should not be dismissed as non-relevant ahead of being heard. And I think anonymity can provide for some protection towards that behaviour...

What a very sensible answer!

LOL - Ask me to speak Swedish and that'll give it away! 

My angle is whatever the Skip or Third tells me to play!!

Seriously, my name here on the forum really IS my name (unusual second name, I know), so I have it all ready made, I just need to work up to playing that particular position competently!!

Of course, the drawback with having a name like that is that everybody knows who you are as it isn't very likely that there will be many others out there.