Len,

Since you were so vehemently anti-smileys they are coming to haunt you and appear indiscriminantly in all your posts!! Help?? Help??? Oh no, in cyberspace...no-one can hear you scream!

*evil cackle resonates around WriteWords*

Nahed

Yup, I remember too, Len. Consider yourself well and truly smilied..!
Go on, you quite like them really, dontcha?



I've been following the debate in my own haphazard little way and still don't know what to think. Everyone is right. We should be able to hide our profile if we want, for whatever reason..but then again, it's a great community here and a shame not to share.

I wonder also if it could just be the wording that makes this a debate. The idea of "hiding" on a communal site like this. Its almost a statement, a value judgement maybe. We chose to "hide away", not be part of the gang...I don't want to hide anything as such, I just don't feel it necessary to write a profile..

I gather another Quest is brewing? Hurrah for England..! I'll get me spade.

x
tc

You've obviously struck a chord Dee; it's taken me hours to read through all of this . Personally, I wouldn't want anyone knowing where I live, but that's just because I'd be worried about the pitchfork wielding angry mob of writers clutching their rejection letters and setting fire to them outside my house.

As for Google, it's not my profile I have to worry about, it's that bloody interview! Despite having arguably the most common first name and surname in Britain, it still pops up fairly near the top. This has provided much hilarity for friends and relatives who've discovered my moonlighting by accident. "Expert? Expert? You?!" (Cue bellowing laughter accompanied by the odd snort).
I even came across it myself once when googling info on another agency!

And yes; all praise to the anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-cache software. Despite my efforts, our computer seems to be rather popular target. The last time I scanned it I had 60 (yup, 60) worms. Strangely enough, all of them were hiding in the volume control, so they must like my taste in music...

Ralph, re. Shakespeare, try this website, the most fascinating ever.

http://www.shakespeare-oxford.com/

And I'm glad you've explained about the 'huggs', the double gs always worried me; I wanted to reply with one, yet didn't want to seem to be pointing out a mistake on your part. Virtual protocol I guess. As for you being a girl, well, I did sort of guess even before you said some while ago, but thought maybe you liked to be thought of as a guy.

It's easy enough to get an idea of someone from their writing and posting on the forums, whatever they say in their profile, and to feel some affection - platonic, virtual or both - for those whose writing reaches out to move one in some way. Sometimes it seems odd that I've only met those of you who came to Brighton last summer.

Let it be known, Oh Gracious and Illustrious Members that because I have a Smiley bug in my close bracket (quite uncomfortable) I regard this not as a punishment nor as a retribution from the Sultan of Cyberspace. I regard all Smilies as childish intrusions and shall continue to hold this opinion.

That apart, I think this discussion has emerged as one of the most interesting on WriteWords.

Len - without brackets

Having just picked up this thread, and as one of the guilty new members, I can see that as tiny clanger says, to hide ones profile could be seen as a some kind of 'statement' of non involvement, but for me the anonimity factor is one of the strengths of an online writing community. The feeling that my writing will be judged on its own merits, and people will not be influenced by the fact that I'm a ninety three year old haemafrodite with fifty eight cats and a bad memory living in a tree house in Bognor Regis, USA, is liberating, and I hope will be conducive to better writing. Apart from that, I enjoy speculating about the person behind the fiction.

I knew it, Len! You're coming round.. ; ) (special, non-smiley, smiley just for you.

x
tc

<Added>

Eek, my close bracket has gone missing, probably worn out by all the use it gets. Let that be a lesson to me.

Oh, and Amnesia, last time I counted you had 59 cats..tsk!

x
tc

You're not my husband are you?

<Added>

I shall have to change my name to Paranoia!

Got me there, Am. I don't honestly know.
Is your hubby female, with a long nose, a red dress and a skyboat? Does he eat lots of soup and blue string spaghetti? Does he count amongst his friends a dragon, an Iron Chicken and some froglets? Does he not so much talk, more hoot, and really rather engagingly, once you get used to it?
He does?
Does he write mostly miserable poetry?
He does?
Then it's me. What time shall I be home for dinner?


x
tc

JohnK, if I wasn’t afraid of having accusations of racism flung at my head, I’d say you’ve been in the Antipodes too long We have real men in the UK now who hug everyone and everything – men, women, the dog, trees in the park…

Ralph – silly me! I just assumed you couldn’t spell and was too sensitive of your finer feelings to point out your error… I’m sorry? Was that hollow laughter I hear from under a bed somewhere?? I can do sensitive too, tc… if I must…

Thomas Gray? He any relation to Nell? Richard, do you think perhaps you’re getting a mite paranoid about spades? Hmm? Tc’s gone for hers and I bet Wordy’s got one… that’ll be why she’s cackling… nice sound that… haven’t heard a full-bodied cackle for centuries…

Speaking of anonymity and disguises – my partner used to play a lot of backgammon online and one site he used asked for photographs (!). No-one on the site ever managed to give a reasonable justification for this but, always one to oblige, he posted a picture of Clint Eastwood. Reaction? Zilch. Not a comment. Not a flutter. So who’s really taking any notice of this?

And, no, I’m not living with Clint Eastwood…

ee.
x

no, but he does have a tiny clanger.

Amnesia,
You're a bigger liar than I am... and I did not think that possible.

I have always felt that fantasies, imagination, creativity and lies are all heightened aspects of a writer's abilities.

By the way I met Mr Eastwood when he became Mayor... true! But I cannot comment on his personal attributes. I am having another trip to California in May... all booked!

Len.

Hur hur hur! Nice one, Am. But that also rules me out, I'm afraid. Last time I looked I didn't actually have one at all...got a spade though, and you're never alone with a spade.

Dee, I'm out from under the bed now, do try to keep up, dear. It was all dusty and a n enormous spider was giving me the eye. Enormous spider or internet pond life? No contest really.

Actually, just to be nerdy for a minute, what should I have on my computer to stop all these nasty things? I'm completely bamboozled with this and probably have every known virus and worm under the sun gleefully buggering up my hard disc.. If anyone can tell me, in plain English, what to get and where to get it, I'd be very grateful. Oh, I've got a Mac, if that makes a difference, it usually does..

x
tc
Gosh, I wouldn't half mind a scone. Any going anywhere?

Simple, search google for Ad-Aware, download free version, install and run to highlight all spy-ware on your PC. Delete it all. This also disrupts evil programs like Kazaa, which you shouldn't have anyway.

Step two, search google for Zone Alarm, a free firewall, download, install and set to run on startup.

Forget what my free anti-virus is, but search google for free anti-virus, there are plenty.

Ultimately no excuse for anyone to be without those three basic free commodities, which is why I laugh so heartily when viruses like the recent MyDoom become so widespread, when everyone in the world can be protected for free if only they took the time to install the right software.


<Added>

Oh, there should be Mac-specific version of all the above, though you may be forced to look a little harder for it.

Thanks IB, suitably chastened, I will run off and Google madly!

x
tc