[quote:bb21cc926b="tbob"]I think we should all remember that this is the voice of the HKBWS and as such if any liableous or defamatory article is posted on this site, we as members are responsible. Therefore it is only fair that the administrators have some control or knowledge as to whom posts on the site.
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The issue isn't whether the administrators can see the real name of posters - of course they should be able to. The issue is what name is displayed to the rest of the world next to people's posts. Some people, for various legitimate reasons, don't want their full names shown, or want to show a particular version of their name. I can also quite understand that some people don't like their login ID and don't want it displayed. I think mine is quite ugly, and it doesn't bear any relationship to any form of my name that I use. Apart from this, for security reasons there are good arguments for keeping login IDs private.
The argument that it will make things harder for the administrators if people can choose any login ID sounds spurious to me. In a database you can search by login ID, real name, user name or any other piece of information. So if I had chosen a login ID of korenm (or jsmith, or abcde) instead of mkoren, the administrators should just be able to search using this information and find out my real name and other information. Similarly, if I choose that the only information about me that is displayed is my name, which I enter as "Batman", the administrators should be able to search for this name and find my real name very simply. Why do the admins have to "check 8 possible options" as Forrest said in one of his earlier posts - doesn't this software have a proper search option in its administrative functions?
Personally, I would prefer to just display my name (in whatever form I care to enter it) and have my username and real name kept for access by admins only.
Cheers, Koren
