Thoughts on Anonymous Comments

subtitled...Helloooooo, It's the Internet, the whole damned place is anonymous.

[Disclaimer: I am sure these thoughts are my own and not shared by any other Literotica author, so if you take exception to my opinion please do not hold it against YOUR favorite Lit author.]

First off, let me go on the record and say I LOVE COMMENTS whether posted right on the individual piece as Literotica now allows or any comment sent directly to my e-mail. I accept and read all of them gladly, absorbing them like a sponge. Because after all, even a negative comment acknowledges that my feeble existence in the literary world. I am sure this rationalization sustained Harold Robbins, Jacqueline Suzanne and my personal favorite Jackie Collins.

Of course, anonymous or not, I most especially comments like, "you are the greatest author on Literotica or in the world today". No, I have not gotten that comment yet, but I have received a few that were close to it. I admit to some ego gratification, it is after all my only reward on a free website.

But. Good golly, Miss Molly! How can you ask me questions and expect any kind of answer if you sign yourself Anonymous. What could you be thinking?

Anonymous, for Christ sake? It's the frickin' Internet!!! The whole damned thing is anonymous. Yahoo and Hotmail have a nearly unlimited supply of free "names". You can easily find or invent one that suits you. You know? It is not as if you can go to the yellow pages and find a street address or home phone number for "PassionTitty" or "ronde" or "Christo" or "TeaserGirl8" or for that very matter "V.Rich". You know? I have chatted with all these other folks and yet their privacy is still preserved.

Anonymity is not such a big deal it to a comment that reads "you are one sick puppy" or "V. Rich seems to be saying her way is the will of the majority. No so". After all, not much room for dialogue there?

But the anonymous questions that are the most frustrating. "What were you thinking?" "Why did you assume...?" and my newest personal favorite from my recent essay "George Bush, Gay Marriage and Love" was from an interesting but anonymous contributor who posed the question "Anyways, other questions I would pose is, if I am a married male, and I decide to legally get a sex change and live as a woman,(which by law I am allowed to do), am I still legally married?"

I did not address the last issue of transsexuality in my essay, but I would like to challenge that anonymous author to please elaborate on his or her question and submit an essay on this topic because I would be interested in reading it! And I can guarantee you, Mr/Ms. Anonymous "Trends and Questions" in US, that if you can "rant" for 550 words you can rave for 400 more words and submit an essay to Literotica for consideration. I say to you, please do, because I truly believe that Literotica is the forum to discuss this thorny issue.

I guess my frustration is that I am legitimately intrigued by many of the comments and e-mail feedbacks that I have received, I want to be able to give them the individual feedback that they deserve. But how can I answer the questions you ask or that you inspire in me? It is unfair to leave me dangling over a quagmire of muddy anonymous curiosity.

Such was the case of Anonymous "Garbage In .... Garbage out...02/28/04 by Anonymous in USA (Southeast) -V. Rich seems to be saying..." Gigo? Good God, Man, what are you afraid of? That you have to steal ancient computer jargon from the 1980s? Honey, you need to get a new hard drive and upgrade to one of the speedy Intel processors.

I wrote a 1600 word essay, what part offended you? That I was a woman writing on this particular issue? I was not offended to see a wonderful essay by a man writing about the Vagina Monologues. Or were you offended because I live in the South or because I disagree with President Bush? Or were you upset to see my opinion posted in Literotica? I notice you were not to straightlaced or religious to read it on Literotica.

Maybe you objected to my point, in this era of public religiosity and private perversions, that maybe the President has better things to occupy his time with like 100,000 Americans fighting on foreign soil or an exploding national deficit in the billions of dollars rather than wasting his time pandering to conservatives working themselves into a frenzy over 5,000 (or less) marriages between members of the same sex.

See? Nothing but questions and no way to answer nor address the original questioner? Anonymity. Blessed, cowardly anonymity.

As Ms D from the UK knows ( no anonymity for this courageous gal) an intelligent feedback letter can spark many times the number of questions created, than those I can answer. And I look forward to being further intrigued, too.

I would like to address one last Anonymous poster, just because he was so much fun. "Bisexual 02/27/04 by Anonymous. As a bisexual couple we want to marry a third, is this OK? "

I did not address this issue at all, but I am pleased to report that a far more esteemed author than myself did. That would be Robert A. Heinlein, in his 1973 novel To Sail Beyond the Sunset, though he also mentioned the concept of group marriage in Stranger in a Strange Land. Heinlein's advise, if you are still interested Mr. Sarcastic and BiSexually Anonymous in no-particular location, was that you and your partners in love should get together and draw up a group-marriage contract that is mutually agreeable to each of you. Because the issue is not the law but is love and commitment.

See? Even though you may have asked a rhetorical question, I did indeed have an answer for you! Because you may have missed my real message. Please, look again. My position is that the President of the free world has more to content himself than the sexual diversities of all his citizens, although I think with all the financial troubles California is having I would think Arnold would be thrilled to death at the added revenue from all those marriage licences. Oh, well, there's no accounting for taste, is there?

Well, I am diverting off my real subject which is my personal and gut level reaction to the anonymous comment. I will continue to allow anonymous postings on my submissions and on my e-mails, although I would sure love it if you all would leave a name for me to call you.

In the mean time, I will leave you with the best comment posted to me so far from:

02/27/04 by jthserra
"Your essay is well spoken and I fully agree with your position. Well done."

Thanks for reading this work. Please vote to indicate how much you enjoyed it (?), or how much it intrigued you and send feedback if you can spare the time. Your votes and feedback are the only way I will know how much you appreciated my effort and furnish the only means to improve my writing. Thank you.