If push came to shove, and the admins decided to do away with the handles, I would go with my name. There are a couple of people on here who know who I am. As far as everyone else, I don't have an axe to grind......

It stands to reason that OF FLIPPIN' COURSE everyone who hides their identity behind a pseudonym will rise up in verbose defense of their practice. It's about the same ballot-box-stuffing as a bar/restaurant egging their customers and social media followers to "vote early and often!" for the newspaper/magazine's "Best of [City/County]" polls. They never reflect true opinion, just who does the best job promoting the contest and/or who has the most locations. Usually such publications have to run a separate selection based on editorial staff/contributors' judgements, not the popular vote--as in, there's NO WAY Taco Bell is "the best Mexican restaurant" anywhere but, say, rural Montana or Maine, but too often they win the "popular vote".......

When I think of the most aggravating and annoying gadfly-style people on this forum, none are anonymous that come to mind. You could post your name and location of your house, secure in the knowledge that nobody is going to come to your front door.
People these days, regardless of age, have a "what goes online stays online" mindset and have no concept of retribution for what is written. I encountered a particularly vile person from another forum at a public event (this guy posted graphic descriptions of things he wanted to happen to my wife while she's home alone). I was fully prepared to send him to the hospital via a life flight (or worse), only to realize he was a teenager. I told him his age was the only thing preventing me from giving him the severe beating he so desperately deserved.
Anything I post online, I think about what would happen if I later encounter anyone I was responding to. I wish more people would do the same, for everyone's good.
Sadly, I agree.

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Wesley

What sort of reputation does RYPN have? Maybe I shouldn't be here... LOL

Well, Pete, would you want to join a club that would accept you as a member ??

Nope, not I, either. Too many others trying to out-nerd me.

On the plus side, here we don’t have a lot of “Hold my beer…. HEY EVERYBODY, WATCH THIS” a few minutes before you hear the siren.

Not even in Maine. I can point you to several high-quality non-Taco-Bell Mexican establishments in the Mid-Coast area.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Why? One could make the case that a discussion of where to procure quality Mexican eats while visiting Maine narrow gauge and NESCo is a more relevant topic of conversation than this beating-of-the-dead-horse thread.

Conversely, divergence and hijacking of a thread whose topic is 'well past its sell-by date' provides continued entertainment for those who, however mistakenly, click on the topic periodically to see how it is 'progressing'.

I deeply regret contributing to the "divergence and hijacking" of this vital thread. Not wishing to further provide "continued entertainment for those who, however mistakenly, click on the topic periodically to see how it is 'progressing' ", I hereby bring this thread back to the original topic by voting to ban all anonymous RYPN users immediately and for all time.

But first we should throw them in the water to see if they float...

Forget sinking, if I eat enough Mexican food I can float like a balloon, methane being lighter than air.....

Is there anywhere near the WW&F to get a good donair, or would I have to hop on the ferry to Nova Scotia for that?

That in itself was pretty entertaining.

What if I float as well as use my real name? That’s a conundrum.

I think we should ban all anonymous users. But first there should be a 30-day period where everyone is offered an opportunity to switch their user names to their actual names, at no charge, and with no questions asked. Or to a plausible-sounding fake real name. And from then forward, everyone has to stick with those names for ever.

I'm going to switch my name to Ralph Budd.

I don’t know how well it would work here, but a motorcycle forum for a specific manufacturer I have frequented for quite a few years has a good way of dealing with this. Anyone can post anonymously (there’s a box you check) but you have to list a reason (visible only to the moderators), and if it’s not a valid reason, a moderator deletes your post.

This function would typically be used by someone who worked for the manufacturer. They would never release any true manufacturer’s secrets, but they’d probably skirt the limits of what they were allowed to say. It was pretty cool as we’d occasionally get confirmation of a rumor about an upcoming model or something similar. The mods made sure people using the anonymous posting function were legitimate and not just some bozo claiming to have inside information. You also couldn’t use it to anonymously insult people.

Unfortunately, the motorcycle company is no longer in business, so there’s no longer any need for the function.