ADMIN NOTE: On anonymity and Tidefans...

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This is just a word on Tidefans' policies and personal information. This is prompted by some misguided remarks made by a recently banned member on his way out of the door. Several years ago, and after considerable debate, the decision was made to require "real" email addresses in order to register for Tidefans. IOW, no more Hotmail, Yahoo, etc., addresses. This was prompted by the realization that a very small percentage of our members caused the major proportion of problems for our mods and their fellow members, and almost all of them had "throwaway" email addresses, which enabled them to register over and over and continue to cause problems. At that same time, we decided that any member would be required to give his or her basic identification information upon request or be suspended, then removed, unless they became more forthcoming. Again, this was to protect the site and its members. The principle involved is that no one with nothing to hide would mind such a request. The member I mentioned above obviously had a great deal to hide. He'd registered three times (at least) before, and he'd been banned under those identities. To repeat, this is not a change in policies - it's just a reiteration of what has been in place and it's being repeated because the individual's remarks mentioned above might give some the mistaken impression that their personal identification is somehow private, when it's definitely not on Tidefans...