The Weird Reasons Why People Make Up False Identities on the Internet

[Gerard]

Deleted.

 

Some people incapable of showing respect and good manners.

 

Not a good sign for a forum that claims to be Taoist. Too easy to put a tag on, a different thing is proving in real life that you deserve that tag. Virtue is earned by hard work to Internet pretentious talk and reading countless books.

 

Edited February 13, 2016 by Gerard

[Geof Nanto]

From Cao Xueqin’s  The Story of Stone.........

 

‘Welcome to the Land of Illusion’.

 

Truth becomes fiction when the fiction’s true

Real becomes not-real when the unreal’s real

[Apech]

Je suis Gerard Banhidi.

[Karl]

That's not Gerard. I know Gerard and that definitely isn't him.

 

 

[Taoist Texts]

You all know my name

 

[ralis]

So the OP can come on here and preach about Buddhist fundamentalism and karma. Karma from that point of view has no basis except inducing fear.

[Marblehead]

Well, really.  No kidding.  I'm really a teenage girl and I'm still a virgin.

[thelerner]

I am a 27 year old Brazilian woman currently doing time in the San Quentin Womans correctional facility. I have a penchant for writing bad checks and lying.

 

Actually I'm lying about the lying(wrap your minds around That). I am just michael. A simple house husband. I am leading such a domesticated life that that the thing I've gotten most excited about lately was a minimalist oat meal cookie recipie I found on the back of McClellns Oatmeal.

 

I entered the rat race, won and quit. Now I have a bit more time to figure things out. In college I got way too top heavy, too much reading, too much philosophy. It was important to get into the martial arts where philosphy is nice, but punch is a punch and must be avoided.

 

I've always meditated. I got involved in the Healing Tao, because it seemed very proactive. I like its beginning practices, the smile, orbit, chi gung routines. I'm just getting into Winns Kan & Li tapes. I think I'll stick w/ it a while longer. See whats ahead of the bend. I think the pre Kan & Li stuff is grade school, Kan & Li gets you into 'high school'. maybe

 

This is a great board, and many kudos to the people I've met here and to Sean who has put a great deal of work into this site.

 

Yours

 

Michael

[Marblehead]

I liked you better when you were a woman.

[Apech]

Well, really.  No kidding.  I'm really a teenage girl and I'm still a virgin.

 

 

I knew it!!!

[Karl]

Well, really.  No kidding.  I'm really a teenage girl and I'm still a virgin.

 

Yeah, but your still bloody ugly.

[Marblehead]

Yeah, but your still bloody ugly.

You think maybe that's why I'm still a virgin?

[mostly_empty]

I wonder how many users here are honest and true to themselves.

 

Now that would be a high standard that would require far more self-insight than is available on a regular basis. 

On the other hand, if I am confused and unclear, I probably am reflecting my own nature, such as it is...

[Karl]

You think maybe that's why I'm still a virgin?

 

I steadfastly refuse to be your agony aunt. Get thee to a nunnery.

[Marblehead]

I steadfastly refuse to be your agony aunt. Get thee to a nunnery.

Yeah, virgins don't last long there.

[Nungali]

Very interesting reading:

 

"Sockpuppetry—using false identities for deception—is centuries old, but the advent of the web has made creating sockpuppets, and falling for their tricks, easier than ever before.

We can’t physically meet most of the people we interact with on the internet. So we create avatars who represent us in the online world, personae that are designed—on some level, conscious or subconscious—to shape others’ ideas about who we really are. Indeed, it’s natural for us to create avatars that represent what we want to be rather than what we are. And it’s only a short step from there to manipulating others’ perceptions of us to give ourselves an advantage of some sort, to deceive. To become puppet masters.

 

The Daring Political Rebel Who Was Not What She Seemed

 

Take Amina Arraf. She was a 35-year-old Syrian American who had become a prominent blogger. Her blog, Gay Girl in Damascus, described life in Syria during the beginning of the uprising against Bashar al-Assad. Liberal and lesbian, she was in a precarious position as a protester in a conservative and unstable society. She kept writing, and in May, The Guardian dubbed her “an unlikely hero of revolt in a conservative country.”

 

But in the early evening of Monday, June 6, 2011, she was walking to meet a friend in downtown Damascus when three young men wrestled her into a red minivan, which screeched off into the dusk. Arraf’s cousin posted details to Amina’s blog. The outcry was immediate. The Guardian reported the kidnapping, and so did the New York Times, Fox News, Gawker, CNN, and several other news organizations. The International Business Times asked how the United States should respond to the abduction, and “Free Amina” websites and posters began to spring up.

Within a few hours, though, Andy Carvin, an NPR journalist, noted on Twitter that none of the people who had ever interviewed Arraf had met her or even spoken to her over the phone. Once someone began to question Arraf’s identity, the illusion shattered. By the morning of June 8, the Wall Street Journal had discovered that photos purportedly of Arraf were, in fact, snapshots of a woman living in London. Shortly thereafter, a website in communication with Arraf was able to show that her computer was in Scotland. Soon it became clear that Arraf wasn’t a “she” at all. She was the creation of Tom MacMaster, a Ph.D. student at the University of Edinburgh."

 

 

Link.

 

 

My question is: to what extent is this happening in the forum, The Dao Bums? Because if that's true then things are worse as we are dealing with the deepest and highest level of existence: the spirit. Remember that your actions have a direct effect on the spirit, with serious karmic consequences if they are dishonest.

 

Buddhism: right speech

 

I wonder how many users here are honest and true to themselves.

 

You all know my name, I even use my real name as a nick. My last name is Banhidi. Here's a recent photo of me:

 

 

 

I thought a sock puppet was a  concealed identity from the site Admin, so they cant ID you ?

Putting a pic  and tag other than a  real ID photo online is considered by some , a matter of  security .  And I thought that was called an 'avatar' ? 

 

Putting up your real ID on the internut ???    Someone could steal your identity you realise  .........      

Edited February 13, 2016 by Nungali

[Nungali]

Well, really.  No kidding.  I'm really a teenage girl and I'm still a virgin.

 

 

wait !    You are not  a gorilla  ? ? ? 

 

I feel so ripped off !   

[Nungali]

You think maybe that's why I'm still a virgin?

 

 

Maybe shave the chest and stop beating your boobs flat ? 

[Nungali]

Yeah, virgins don't last long there.

 

 

2 nuns riding their bicycles from the  market, back to the nunnery ....   Mother Superior takes a shortcut down an alleyway  ,

 

" Mother Superior, I have never come this way before. "

 

"Yes, Sister Mary .....     it's the cobblestones. " 

[Michael Sternbach]

I would love to share a photo of myself, but I can't.

 

Because I don't exist!!!

[Gerard]

Practice more, here's a good video for you to purify your impure minds:

 

 

 

Edited February 13, 2016 by Gerard

[Michael Sternbach]

[Astral Monk]

Who you 'really are' is neither a name nor a recent photo.

 

8)

Edited February 13, 2016 by Astral Monk

[liminal_luke]

Photos can easily be faked.  Posting personalities, not so much.  Who we are tends to shine through our writing whether we want it to or not.

[ralis]

Practice more, here's a good video for you to purify your impure minds:

 

Walking Meditation

 

 

 

Impure minds? Exactly, who are you referring to?