annonymouses ...

Commenters labelling themselves 'anonymous' bugs the crap out of me; I would disable the facility to do so, if I could.Now, there are three people who have quite commonly commented on one or other of my blogs as 'anonymous' - and they are all very dear lady friends of mine, and I try to be as tolerant of their foible in this regard as I can be. But please - it's not that goddamned difficult to give yourself a distinctive tag.You don't have to sacrifice your anonymity, you don't have to use your real name, you don't even have to use a nickname that would identify yourself to me alone (although if you're one of my friends, I can't see why you wouldn't!); but it is useful - essential - to have some label by which we can differentiate your comments from other people's. If, as has recently happened, we have more than one person commenting on the same thread as 'anonymous', it becomes impossible to work out who's saying what.Also, of course, there is the problem that if you are going to make needling remarks or 'jokes' about me, they appear far more hostile coming from an 'anonymous' source. A certain intimacy is necessary for you to take the piss out of someone without causing offence, and you lose that intimacy if don't identify yourself in any way at all. In fact, as one of these unfortunate 'anonymous' commenters has recently experienced, you will appear to be just a random stranger having a go, and may thus risk attracting counter-invective from my other blog-buddies (the pugnacious 'Mothman' wades in to defend me, with his bloodcurdling battlecry of "I flame, so you don't have to!")...... and possibly even from me, if you get me riled enough. So, PLEASE, pretty-please-with-fucking-sugar-on-top, all you 'anonymouses' out there, give yourself a 'name' when you comment on here.

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