Over at the Forum.CircumventingTheSystem thread, there was this piece of conversation:
anon_22 – at 01:09: The issue of anonymity is very important. There’s a case for it both ways. On a local level, Surfer’s concern is genuine. OTOH, it is very hard to be convincing if you are anonymous. Perhaps one way is to work on a bigger piece of ‘localness’ eg county level rather than town level, and not give out your real address except to 1 or 2 people. (…) As Melanie kept reminding me, coming out of anonymity is easy. Taking it back is impossible.
lugon wrote: There might be a network so that I talk in your place and you talk in mine. If such a “couple” is formed, please tell us how it works.
anon_22 wrote: ‘’OMG that’s such a good idea! You want to start a thread for that. Yes, you do. ave
I see just one problem with the “swap speakers” idea: the name and location have to be Joe Nobody or local newspapers may print it electronically and you’d be found out locally anyway.
What do you think about this idea? Would you be ready to try? Get in touch with each other on this thread - be careful with your email address and use the name A-T computer D-O-T com format to avoid spam robots a bit.
I must be a bit slow today, but I don’t understand the concept of “I talk in your place and you talk in mine”.
Is the idea to identify yourself as someone else if you are writing for publication or speaking publicly? Or is it to step into someone else’s shoes to do a presentation/publication in their community and they do the same in yours?
As someone else pointed out in the Cirumventing the System thread, being known in the community is often what gives the message credibility. I’m confused (but maybe it’s the pneumovax that I just got in my arm).
I think the idea would be: I speak before your community, and you speak before mine. So we’re both real flesh persons, but none of us is local.