Then I'm even more pleased to see you, ER. "Chat room" is not really the right word, because chatting usually means realtime communication, like Instant Messenger. Personally I dislike that format, because with more than two people in a conversation it quickly degenerates into an impenetrable babble of short phrases being shouted above the din.

This format is usually called a "BBS" (bulletin board system) or "discussion forum". I prefer this format because it allows, even encourages, more thoughtful and longer replies. You have the freedom to take as much time as you need to compose your thoughts, and you can edit and polish a message before you post. It lacks the pressure of knowing that somebody else is standing by, waiting impatiently for you to write something so that it's their turn again.

Of course, the downside is that it lets garrulous people like me write endless reams of turgid prose. I've been working on brevity for years, but it's tough for me. Imagine how painful it would've been to slog through this post a couple of years ago.

You seem to be taking well to this format, by writing fully-formed essays which convey a premise, reasoning, and a conclusion. I suspect you'll find that it suits you.

People who enjoy this format tend to be proud of their writing skills, and so a part of this culture is reverence for words. The moderators (being writers themselves) are loathe to delete anything without a good reason. I set up the moderation tools so that messages and threads aren't actually deleted, but moved into a private storage area where they can be resurrected if we find we've made a mistake. In parallel is a philosophy taken from the first online community, The Well, which states "you own your words". If ill-chosen words can't be swept under the rug by deletion, people have a motivation to make things right and work it out. This Flame board is part of that process--as I outlined earlier, it's specifically for Zoners who are pissed off at each other and need to duke it out. It really does help to clear the air by fighting when sweet reason alone fails.

"What is a fictitious persona?" One answer might be, all of them, online and in the "real" world. But maybe that's needlessly metaphysical. Some of the names you see here are genuine--I'm really "Robert Shepherd". In general if looks like a real name, it's a real name. The question of identity has come up before, given that the place is so public, and generally we concede the right of anyone to adopt a psuedonym or even to change identities, as long as the intent is not malicious (e.g., impersonating another person, or shifting identities to attack someone from cover without accountability). People have from time to time changed identities to make a new beginning, and so it was possible to suppose (before you filled in some details) that you're actually an identity-shifting Zoner. And that would have been OK. I'm inclined to turn a blind eye to questions of identity out of respect for a person's right to (literally) make of themselves what they will. Online personas are, most of the time, an expression of a person's idealized vision of who they'd like to be; and an online community offers a way to practice being who we'd like to be and to some degree actually become that better person.

Most nom de plumes send a message, and of course I've googled "Elisee Reclus". Interesting choice, ER. I'll be interested to watch as you develop that persona.