Rich Holton wrote:
Ron Ritzman wrote:
On 3/1/07, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
While that is all absolutely true, it doesn't explain why he chose a fake identity with a PhD and a tenured professorship.
Yes, if he thought it was necessary to create a fake identity to protect himself then he should have given his alter ego an educational level similar to his own and a job at more or less the same social status as his real job.
Why create an "alter ego" at all? Using a username like Essjay doesn't give anything away about him. How could stalkers find him based on that?
If you're worried about stalkers, just remain anonymous. There's no reason to "throw them off the track" with an alter ego.
If I understand his argument rightly, it is that one is bound to leak, so it's better to go with red herrings to throw stalkers off. That's what I've gathered from his talk-page comments, though.
Not that I necessarily agree with the argument, or at this point even have much confidence that such was his real motivation. But seeing some of what people have theorized about me based on my edits, I don't think it's a crazy argument.
William